Globalisation, Transport and the Environment
What impact has globalisation had on transport? And what have been the consequences for the environment? This book aims to answer these questions and more. It looks in detail at how globalisation has affected activity levels in maritime shipping, aviation, and road and rail freight, and assesses the impact that changes in activity levels have had on the environment. The book also discusses policy instruments that can be used to address negative environmental impacts, both from an economic perspective and from the point of view of international law.
Related reading
Environmental Outlook to 2030 (2008)
The Economics of Climate Change Mitigation: Policies and Options for Global Action beyond 2012 (2009)
Also available in: French
- Click to access:
-
Click to download PDF - 5.97MBPDF
-
Click to Read online and shareREAD
Policy Instruments to Limit Negative Environmental Impacts
International Law
This chapter provides an overview of international law’s limits and opportunities in combating the adverse effects of transport on the environment. It examines these limits and opportunities in turn for international air transport, international shipping, road transport and other regimes which regulate, for instance, the transport of hazardous waste. This chapter thus examines the opportunities and limits of policy instruments in addressing negative environmental impacts arising from transport. It breaks down responses by multilateral, regional and unilateral approaches. Although international law in general does not exclude the possibility of unilateral action, it strongly encourages multilateral approaches. States have considerable freedom to regulate their own vessels and set the rules applicable in their own territory, particularly if they adopt non-discriminatory legislation. Regional initiatives offer several successful models to debate, design and adopt innovative rules which later can find their way into global regimes. Although international regimes on occasion act as constraints on governments’ abilities to regulate activity that is harmful to the environment, the international law provides many opportunities to adopt new instruments to regulate environmental impacts from increased international transport.
Also available in: French
- Click to access:
-
Click to download PDF - 465.43KBPDF
-
Click to Read online and shareREAD