Environmental law

The government is caught in a difficult situation when concocting environmental policies such as this.  There must be policies in place to accord with the commitment of reducing emissions to combat climate change, but equally they must minimise detrimental economic impacts.  Many critics believe that this is the downfall in environmental policy.  The government takes an anthropocentric approach to environmental issues as opposed to putting the environment first. Human need and economic well being are at the forefront of the governments mind when implementing environmental legislation and policy.

The critics argument is somewhat supported when examining the implementation of the Levy further.  Environmental taxes have the advantage of being predicable in terms of cost and they can be applied across a broad categories of tax payers.  If this is the case, surely the implementation of an eco tax for the biggest polluting sectors, the domestic and transport sector, would be the obvious answer?  It is suggested that the biggest disadvantage of the CCL is the exemption of these sectors.  Low income households and fuel poverty were at paramount considerations here.  However critics believe that the government should take a more eco-centric approach and “there should not be a blanket exemption for households from taxation measures when the policies are aimed at limiting climate change”. Critics believe that the CCL should be re designed to include both of these high polluting sectors.  Implementing a tax would have the advantage of funding compensation for low income families and would help finance development of low emissions technologies.  The Levy in its current form will almost certainly not enable such long-term emission reductions unless all sectors are also taken into consideration. 

The other economic instrument implemented was the Emissions Trading Scheme.  This allows participants to purchase or sell allowances to produce emissions.  It is enforced by the Emissions Trading Authority and is effectively a ‘cap and trade’ scheme whereby the parties agree upon specific reductions and receive allowances based upon that cap.  Comparisons have been made between the effectiveness of this instrument against the CCL.  This has the advantage of being flexible in the sense that it is akin to a performance standard which encourages technological improvement and fits in with the idea of ecological modernisation.  The scheme also provides a degree of certainly about the achievement of the environmental goal as the limits are place on the overall allowances which can be traded.  It encourages compliance through efficiency and competitive advantage.  It is even possible for there to be wider public participation in the system thought the trading of non-target participants. 

The actual evidence of the system demonstrates some of the disadvantages.  Setting the cap is crucial.  If it is too high the need for efficiency is reduced.  Lots of companies have beaten targets way below cap levels and as a result have lots of surplus being banked or traded.  As a result, companies can ‘buy in’ extra emissions as an alternative to investing in environmentally friendly technology.  If the cap is set too low, the goal becomes unachievable.  In addition, care needs to be taken to ensure that reductions are triggered by more than legal obligations under pollution control legislation; reductions in capacity; or ‘business as usual’ projections.  Emissions trading schemes are suitable where there are a relatively small number of participants with large sources of pollutants, such as the industry sector.  Where there are large numbers of small sources (e.g. cars, households or agriculture) an emissions trading scheme would be too cumbersome to operate unless there were operators that could be made personally responsible for aggregated emissions. (e.g. airline operators).

The agreements made by the Kyoto Protocol and the subsequent implementation of UK policies brought in by the 2000 Climate Change Programme can be seen as a giant leap for the government in terms of bringing climate change to the forefront of government decisions.  Although the discussed measures have significant downfalls, they are seen as a platform for which climate change law and policy can progress. 

No doubt this acceleration in environmental law and policy has been partly due to the recent report developed by Sir Nicholas Stern.  The report discusses how “climate change presents a unique challenge for economics:  it is the greatest and widest ranging market failure ever seen”.  The review considers the economic costs of the impact of climate change, and the cost benefits of action to reduce emissions of GHG that cause it.  When considering the physical impacts of climate change on the economy and human life   environmental measures seem to have gathered speed.  The government is again taking an anthropocentric approach to the law and policy it implements, to ensure climate change doesn’t damage economic growth.  Interestingly the report points out that to merely stabilise emissions, global emissions would need to be around 25% lower than present levels, highlighting that the Kyoto reductions are not going to be enough.  Taking the Stern Report into account, the government has set about increasing its efforts considerably in more recent years.  

Significant changes have taken place more recently with the emphasis finally being on reducing energy consumption in the household and transport sectors.  By recognising that transport created over 95% of carbon emissions in 2004, the government highlighted ways to tackle this by setting out measures in the 2006 Climate Change Programme.  The focus was to help people make smarter travel choices and improve the fuel efficiency of vehicles by using fiscal incentives to choose less polluting vehicles.  The measures also include promises to cut car emissions from new vehicles using European law agreements with car manufacturers to improve the average fuel efficiency on new cars by at least 25% by 2008.  This is backed up with the reform of company car taxation coupled with the investment of £180 billion on public transport over the next ten years to cut congestion and reduce pollution.  Criticisms of the previous programme are seen to be taken into consideration in the reforms.

Measures to cut domestic energy use were also proposed.  The revised Programme highlights how energy usage occurs in the home and designs specific measures to target this.  “A range of different approaches are required to tackle domestic energy efficiency effectively.  These include the provision of information and advice to consumers, such as energy labels on new appliances, incentives, such as reduced VAT on energy saving materials, voluntary agreements with retailers and manufacturers, regulations, such as minimum standards for buildings and appliances, or supplier obligations such as the Energy Efficiency Commitment.”  Finally the government recognises that the way forward in environmental law and policy is to inform the public so that they can make environmentally friendly choices.  It intends to maximise this through marketing techniques and raising awareness.  This relatively ‘soft’ policy is the only plan that the government has come up with to discourage the public from abusing the consumer lifestyle of today and encourage habit breaking and eco friendly choices.

Simultaneously, the UK has developed legislation to enforce its intentions, namely the Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Act 2006.  Specific proposals are implemented to alleviate fuel poverty by making it easier and cheaper for individual households to generate their own energy.    The Act requires the government to produce a fiscal and economic strategy to assist with micro generation and energy efficiency.  This will be done by simplifying the planning regime for the installation of home based energy producing devices.  The Act also places an obligation on the government to examine and report on the carbon saving potential of domestic appliances that use off peak electricity.  Although the government is seen to be tackling domestic energy use, the Act is again lacking in hard rules that will make the consumer change their view.  It is seen as being an unrealistic piece of legislation that doesn’t reflect the severity of the threat of Climate Change.    

The government is seen to be actively trying to come up with ideas for new policy and law only to be met with criticism.  The Energy Review published in 2006, saw another mechanism by which the government intends to reduce emissions generated from domestic sources.  The Energy Review focused on securing long term energy supplies and sustainable development for the UK.    Again, with the ‘people pleasing’ aim that every home should have adequate and affordable heat.  The solution that the government decided upon was to introduce a new wave of nuclear powered energy programmes.

These proposals have faced a wall of criticism from environmental groups.  Although nuclear power stations produce a zero carbon source of energy it is argued that they produce more problems they create.  The long term safety problems for radioactive waste are a huge concern. There is also the argument of the economics of new nuclear power stations and who will pick up the escalating costs of subsidizing them.  Environmental groups believe that other measures could be taken before resorting to nuclear power as a way of cutting greenhouse gases.  It is believed that the government is thinking of short term solutions to the problem and hastily trying to meet its targets without thinking towards the future.  

It is believed that “short-term political considerations will have to be displaced by longer-term strategic thinking” if government policy is to make any positive significant dent in the environment.  By analysing the recent government policy and law relating to Climate Change it can be seen that the government is all too concerned with political considerations and ensuring the public are not faced with any detriment as a result of implementing new measures.  The argument that law and policy in the UK takes an anthropocentric approach is evidenced by the fact that the early policies for eco taxes did not include the transport and domestic sectors for fear of harm to the public and economy.  

The Stern Report went some way in convincing the government that the economic impact will be greater if more coherent measures are not put in place.  However it is still argued that the new measures are not enough to stop the imminent threat to our climate.  It is argued that the UK’s response is more proactive rather than reactive and that environmental concern should be taken into account in all policy making decisions.   Deeper consideration should be given to changing consumer views, increasing awareness and deterrents should be put in place to make the public use the environmentally friendly choices.  A more eco centric approach to law and policy is the only way forward if the government are going to reduce greenhouse gas emissions below target levels and delay the catastrophic consequences of Climate Change.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2006/20060019.htm - “Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Act 2006”

http://www.hmtreasury.gov.uk/independent_reviews/stern_review_economics_climate_change/sternreview_index.cfm - “The Stern Report”

http://unfccc.int/2860.php - “United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change - Rio 1992”

http://www.dti.gov.uk/energy/review/page31995.html - “2006 Government Consultation: The Energy Review”

http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/faqs/questions/nuclear_energy.html - “Friends of the Earth: Can Nuclear Power really meet our energy needs?”

Bell, S & McGillivray, “Environmental Law” (6th ed.  OUP Oxford 2006)

Benjamin J, Richardson, Kiri L & Chanwai, “The UK's Climate Change Levy: Is It Working?”Env Law 2003.15(39)

http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/climatechange/uk/ukccp/2000/pdf/summary.pdf - “Climate Change Programme 2000”

http://www.defra.gov.uk/ENVIRONMENT/climatechange/uk/ukccp/index.htm - “Climate Change: The UK Programme 2006”

French, D, “1997 Kyoto Protocol To The 1992 UN Framework Convention
On Climate Change”  Env Law 1998 10(227)

Environmental Law Update, “Update on recent Climate Change legislation,” Vathek Publishing, Dec 2005, Enviro LR 7.4(287)

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