Air pollution and industrial emission

Question 1

What are some milestones in the development of atmospheric regulation under IEL?

Answer 1

• Trail smelter case (1938)
  
  • damage was being done to crops, pasture land, trees and agriculture in the US dues to sulphor dioxide eimission from a smelting plant at a smelting company located in Canada (British colombia)
  • submission of the issure to the US-Canada int. joint commission established under the 1909 Boundary waters treaty: compensation for damage and recommendations to reduce emissions/damage in the future
  • US complained further in 1933 on damages, and in 1935 the countries signed a convention submitting the dispute to an arbitral tribunal (the heart of the tribunal held, what now is referred to as an expression on the no harm principle)
• Nuclear testing (1973): Australia (and New Zealand) v. France ICJ
  
  • adaptation of the test ban treaty (1963) which prohibited nuclear weapons explosions in the atmosphere, outer space and under water, by 1974 France was not a party to it
  • Australia claimed it was not in accordance with int. law for France to carry out these tests and that they needed to end it, argued that the test ban treaty emerged as a customary rule, and therefore given a status off jus cogens, interim measures also sought
  • France didnt show, a majority granted interim measures, following, France made a unilateral declaration to cease all atmospheric tests, and the ICJ did not get to the merits because they no longer had an object to give a decision about
• customary law
  
  • with the 1996 Avisory opinon on nuclear weapons, it is clear that int. law - as reflected in state practice, treaties and other int. instruments - prohibits states from causing significant environmental damage from transboundary pollution, including atmospheric pollution
• UN environmental summits
  
  • Agenda 21: a chapter on the topic, provisions recognising sustainable development as the heart of solving these issues, also other areas of development that contribute to the prevention of atmospheric pollution (limit, control, reduce in transportation and industries)

Question 2

What does the 1979 UNECE long-range transboundary air pollution regulate and what are the commitments? How is it different from its 8 protocolls? Who does is apply to?

Answer 2

• addresses the problem of acid rain and other air pollutants and is the only major multilateral agreement concerned with the control of transboundary air pollution
• commitments: develop policies and strategies to combat the discharge of air pollutant (using BATs), exchange of information, review of policies, scientific activities and technical measures and cooperation in research
• protocols: they are more detailed commitments (also include regulation on the level of emissions of particular substances) v. the convention that is more general
• applies to: strictly regional (Europe and North America), but has served as a model for subsequent treaties that adopts, at a global level, to address climate change and ozone depletaion, presedence for other regions efforts to address acid rain and transboundary atmospheric problems

Question 3

How is the 1979 UNECE long-range transboundary air pollution enforced?

Answer 3

• exchange of information and reporting duties
• no clear non-compliance procedures
• co-operative approach to non-compliance
• naming and shaming

Question 4

How does air pollution pose a challenge to EU’s regulation?

Answer 4

• the nature of air pollution is a deeply transboundary problem, the emissions do not stop at national boarders, therefore no suprise the air quality is governed by national, EU and int. law
  
  • ex. Ozone depletion regulation that identified substances that were banned, replacements existed on the market
• air quality regulation address a broad range of regulatory addressees, who may different interests, abilities and inclinations to respond to regulatory communications, which fosters a need for a variety of regulatory approaches and instruments
• the diffuse nature of air pollution is another factor explaining a third feature of EU air quality policy, namely, its heaviy dependence on cooperation and implementation at a national level

Question 5

What are the core instruments in the EU that tries to combat air pollution? And what is their main objective?

Answer 5

• ambient air quality framework directive (2008): to record the concentration levels of atmospheric pollutants in order to define air quality levels and establish action plans if high levels of contamination are detected, enhance and standardize information about air quality
• national emissions ceiling directive (2001): sets an overall limit on emissions allowed inn order to protect citizens and the envrionment
• industrial emissions directive (2010): to govern the environmental behaviour of society’s heavy industrial polluters - plants, steel manufacturers and chemical producers to waste facilities and poultry farms

Question 6

What are the differences between technical standards, quality standards and emissions standards? And which method is used in AQFD, NECD and IED?

Answer 6

• technical: attention drawn to the means through which pollution reduction is pursued rather then the end result of lower emission levels, and leaves regulatory addressees limited choice of how to comply with legal requirements
• quality: states a target rather then the way the target is to be reached, offer more flexibility in implementation
• emission: somewhere between the above, states the intended amount of emission
• AQFD: use a quality-based approach
• NECD: emissions-based approach
• IED: adopts the use of BATs which typically embrace both quality, technical and emissions standards

Question 7

What are some obligations under IED?

Answer 7

• all activitity is subjected to permits: requirements for applying for a permit, including certain information about the activity and its effect on the environment and how to revent adverse effects on the environment + charges ++
• the permits conditions include emission limit values (ELVs) that are based on the adoption of BATs
• closure and remediation (art. 22): the permit must outline necessary measurs to address the pollution so the on site can be returned to the state described in the base-line report, provisions relating to site closure and remdiation (correction)
• inspections (art. 23): regularly reviewed and appropriately updated
• public participation (implementing Aarhus): early opportunities to participate in the granting of permits and updating of permits, certain information must be available to the public

Question 8

Whate are the pillars in IED?

Answer 8

• integrated approach: permits must take the whole environmental performance of the plant into account
• use of BATs: sets sort of a standard for pollution
• flexibility: competent authority can set less strict emission limit values, but this is an exception
• inspections: make sure the industries are operating accordingly
• public participation: in decision-making, information on concequences of the permit, and access to it and the result of giving the permit

Question 9

Which int. environmental law context does the AQFD, NECD, and IED emerge from?

Answer 9

• AQFD: alignes with commitments under the Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP)
• NECD: the 1999 Gothenburg protocol to abate acidification, eutrophication and ground-level Ozone
• IED: ?