Environment law update

DISILLUSIONMENT
In their latest “Environmental Law bulletin” (March 2008), the editors of the Encyclopaedia of Environmental Law reveal a certain sense of disillusionment. Modern environmental politics they say is:

“...characterised by astonishing levels of double-mindedness, whereby so much self-righteous effort can be put into the minutiae, yet the effects of (say) expansion of Heathrow may be swallowed so easily.”

Yet there have been a range of recent developments both in legislation and in case law which are much too significant to be described as minutiae and at the same time are much more beneficial to the environment than airport expansion.

EMISSION REDUCTIONS
At the European level the EU is considering proposed amendments to the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) Directive (the subject of a new consultation exercise by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs), a draft decision allocating among member states the responsibility for achieving emissions reductions outside the EU ETS sectors and a new Directive and communication relating to carbon capture and storage.

At a national level,