Climate Change and International Trade, by Rafael Leal‐Arcas, published by Edward Elgar, 2013, 512pp., £110.00, hardback.

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/reel.12055
• Author: Daniel Pérez Rodríguez
• Published date: 01 April 2014
• Date: 01 April 2014

Information, Public Participation

in Decision-making and Access to

Justice in Environmental Matters.

However, without denying their use-

fulness in promoting changes, such

as improved public participation,

the effectiveness of these treaty pro-

visions should also not be exagger-

ated. This might be illustrated by the

European Commission’s Work Pro-

gramme for 2014. This plan suggests

withdrawing the 2003 proposal for

a Directive on access to justice in

environmental matters.2This pro-

posal has been pending before the

co-legislators since 2003, during

which time no effective progress has

been made. As an alternative the

Commission announced to consider

other ways of meeting the obliga-

tions under the Aarhus Convention,

and it is currently conducting an

impact assessment. It remains to be

seen if a softer approach would

really address the problem and

enhance access to justice. At least a

recent Decision by the Parliament

and the Council includes as one

of its objectives ‘to maximise the

benefits of Union environment

legislation by improving implemen-

tation’.3Concerning access to

justice, the Annex to this decision

states that:

Union citizens will have effective

access to justice in environmental

matters and effective legal protection,

in line with the Aarhus Convention

and developments brought about by

the entry into force of the Lisbon

Treaty and recent case law of the Court

of Justice of the European Union.

Non-judicial dispute resolution will

also be promoted as an alternative to

litigation.4

Sanja Bogojevic´’s chapter builds on

her previous work that identifies

three models for emissions trading

systems. She demonstrates that

within the broader emissions

trading discourse actors have con-

ceived different legislative models

to respond to a shared understand-

ing of the problem of climate

change using market mechanisms.

Her analysis reveals the complex

interactions between the mecha-

nisms of international law and

public law, and also the battle

between the preferences for regula-

tion and deregulation in the design

of carbon trading regimes. She

rightly states that constructing

emissions markets tends to be

viewed as a simple technicality. But

as the construction of the emissions

trading system in the European

Union has made clear, such a con-

struction raises difficult legal dilem-

mas and implications regarding

power allocation that more often

than not will be unique rather than

global in character.

This final observation might be valid

not only for emissions trading but

maybe also for other issues pre-

sented and analyzed in this book.

Overall, this collection not only

introduces the reader to the concept

of ‘environmental discourses’ but

also offers a variety of particular

analyses of environmental dis-

courses covering a range of issue

areas, jurisdictions and institutions.

Let me conclude with a sentence

from the book’s final chapter by

Thomas Pogge: ‘Working through

legal and moral discourses toward

protecting humanity’s future on

this planet can be successful only

insofar as we take careful account of

the existing and evolving distribu-

tion of power and interests’ (p. 445).

Reading this book is definitely

helpful guidance in carrying out this

task.

Jan De Mulder

Department of Public International

Law

University of Ghent, Belgium

Climate Change and

International Trade,by

Rafael Leal-Arcas, published

by Edward Elgar, 2013,

512pp., £110.00, hardback.

This book seeks to address the ques-

tion of how we can use the experi-

ence of the international trading

system to reach a global climate

change agreement in a post-Kyoto

context. The starting point is

the acknowledgment that climate

change mitigation is an indivisible

public good, but that at the same

time international law is facing

fragmentation. The main focus of

the book is on climate change miti-

gation, which is closely connected to

international trade, as exemplified

by issues such as carbon leakage,

carbon markets and climate invest-

ment funds. Even though climate

change and international trade

share some similarities, including

the existence of a multilayered gov-

ernance system, the logic behind

both differs. The main difference

lies in the fact that whereas interna-

tional trade follows a mercantilist

approach, climate change needs to

be analyzed from the perspective of

global public goods.

The book is divided into three parts.

Part 1 sketches the context of

climate change and international

trade. Chapter 2 is primarily

devoted to introducing the science

of climate change, drawing on

the Fourth Assessment Report of

the Intergovernmental Panel on

Climate Change. Leal-Arcas identi-

fies temperature increase, precipi-

tation changes and sea-level rise as

the three main measurable conse-

quences of climate change. Further-

more, an important part of Chapter

2 deals with the problem of climate

migration and analyzes its effects

on international trade. These effects

vary, ranging from an increase in

remittance flows to impacts on

agriculture and labour forces. Leal-

Arcas examines whether States may

use the exceptions contained in the

2Communication from the European Com-

mission, Commission Work Programme

2014, COM(2013) 739.

3Decision of 20 November 2013 on a

General Union Environmental Action Pro-

gramme to 2020 ‘Living Well, within the

Limits of Our Planet’, found at: <http://

ec.europa.eu/environment/newprg/pdf/

PE00064_en.pdf>, Article 1.2(d).

4Ibid., Annex, paragraph 62.

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Review of European Community & International Environmental Law

Book Reviews RECIEL 23 (1) 2014

© 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

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