Lee Godden

Environmental Law Second Edition equips readers with the tools to understand environmental law in Australia. Taking an innovative and interdisciplinary approach, it explores the rapid changes that law and policy in this area have gone through: to encompass broader notions of environment and a wider range of environmental actors; to embrace knowledge from other disciplines; to employ diverse and innovative regulatory approaches; to expand coverage to international as well as national and local issues, and to integrate with law and policy in other regulatory fields. The influence of these trends means that environmental law can no longer be understood, researched or practiced as a self-contained disciplinary area focused on the application of traditional legal remedies to discrete environmental problems. Rather, the area now encompasses broader, multiple notions of environment, embraces knowledge from other disciplines, employs a diverse and innovative range of regulatory approaches, covers international as well as national and local issues, and is integrated into the policy and legal landscapes of various regulatory fields, including economic development and trade.

Australian Climate Law in Global Context is a comprehensive guide to current climate change law in Australia and internationally. It includes discussion of: emission trading schemes and carbon pricing laws, laws on renewable energy, biosequestration, carbon capture and storage and energy efficiency; the trading of emission offsets between developed and developing countries, the new international scheme for the protection of forests (REDD) and the transfer of green finance and technology from developed to developing states, the adaptation to climate change through legal frameworks. It assesses the international climate change regime from a legal perspective, focusing on Australia's unique circumstances and its domestic implementation of climate-related treaties. It considers how the challenge of climate change should be integrated into broader environmental law and management. It is a valuable resource for students in law and environmental science, for current and future legal practitioners and for policy-makers and those in the commercial sector.