Larragán, Javier de Cendra de; Peeters, Marjan; Stallworthy, Mark --- "The rationale for a focus on mitigation law at EU member state level" [2012] ELECD 1204; in Peeters, Marjan; Stallworthy, Mark; de Cendra de Larragán, Javier (eds), "Climate Law in EU Member States" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012) 3

Book Title: Climate Law in EU Member States

Editor(s): Peeters, Marjan; Stallworthy, Mark; de Cendra de Larragán, Javier

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781781002773

Section: Chapter 1

Section Title: The rationale for a focus on mitigation law at EU member state level

Author(s): Larragán, Javier de Cendra de; Peeters, Marjan; Stallworthy, Mark

Number of pages: 9

Abstract/Description:

Climate change presents the most significant environmental challenge that human society has faced in the industrial (or perhaps any) era. The European Union is playing an increasingly active role in seeking out suitable policy responses and bringing them to legal fruition. This has been notable especially in relation to the primary challenge of securing the mitigation of climate change through reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) into the atmosphere. While it is clear that a global problem like climate change demands global action, the potential for achievable national (and sub-national) responses should not be overlooked. For instance, by contrast with obstacles encountered at the international level, action at these levels can arguably be developed relatively rapidly, deploying existing legal mechanisms. As climate legislation has developed within the EU, academic attention has focused on the showpiece thus far of efforts to secure mitigation: the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). The EU ETS, in effect a market-based instrument captured within an EU-wide regulatory regime, has encountered complex difficulties – especially as to the phenomenon of windfall gains from free allocation of allowances, and problems in maintaining a ‘carbon price’ realistic enough to incentivize low carbon investment.