Course

Environmental Markets - LAWS8366

Faculty: Faculty of Law

School: Faculty of Law

Course Outline: See below

Campus: Sydney

Career: Postgraduate

Units of Credit: 6

EFTSL: 0.12500 (more info)

Indicative Contact Hours per Week: 2

Enrolment Requirements:

Prerequisite: Academic Program must be either 9200 or 9210 or 9230 or 5740 or 9220 or 5750 or 8619 or 5499 or 7339

Excluded: JURD7366

CSS Contribution Charge: 2 (more info)

Tuition Fee: See Tuition Fee Schedule

Further Information: See Class Timetable

View course information for previous years.

Description

Over the past decade, the concept of harnessing market forces to solve environmental problems has gained unprecedented attention at the international, national and sub-national level. This trend highlights a paradigm shift in the politics of natural resource management, since until this point market-based instruments were assumed to be of little relevance to environmental policy.

Beginning with the acid rain (NO2 and SO2 (NOX and SOX)) trading markets in the US, market-based instruments have now been applied to a range of environmental issues from emissions, to water, to biodiversity. These instruments have included, for example, environmental taxes, subsidies and tax rebates, bilateral offset programs, credit and permit trading programs, eco-labelling and certification programs, and deposit-refund and performance bond programs. Each of these instruments has the common goal of creating a price signal through regulation, rather than imposing an explicit directive on industry, in order to modify corporative behaviour. In this way, market-based mechanisms differ from both traditional 'command-and-control' regulation and voluntary mechanisms in the environmental arena.

The overall aim of this course is to identify the key elements of environmental markets and to understand what makes an effective, functioning market. We will begin with an overview of market-based mechanisms in the environmental context and a consideration of the key design features of environmental markets. The second section will examine environmental markets across a range of sectors including climate, water, renewable energy, biodiversity and salinity. The course will conclude with an examination of the commercial aspects of environmental markets and some key considerations for negotiating and contracting for environmental goods and services.

This course is also available to students enrolled in the Master of Environmental Management (8619), Graduate Diploma in Environmental Management (5499) and the Graduate Certificate in Environmental Management (7339).

Paul Curnow is a partner of Baker & McKenzie’s Global Environmental Markets practice and is a leading legal adviser on climate change. He advises on carbon, renewable energy and environmental markets. Paul is a Visiting Fellow in Environmental Markets at the University of New South Wales and Chair of the Australian Working Group, Carbon Markets & Investors Association. Paul advises government, multilateral and private sector clients on domestic and international climate change, renewable energy regulation and policy, cross-border project development and financing under the Kyoto Protocol and domestic and regional trading schemes. Most recently, Paul has been involved in a range of domestic and cross-border carbon transactions spanning the Clean Development Mechanism, Joint Implementation, EU and NSW Emissions Trading Schemes and emerging voluntary markets. He has acted on some of the earliest and largest structured carbon trades.

LLM Specialisation


Recommended Prior Knowledge

None

Course Objectives

This course aims:

  • to examine and analyse the main legal concepts and principles applicable to design and regulation of environmental markets;
  • to assist students to develop an understanding of the role played by governments, business and other groups in the regulatory establishment and operation of, and compliance with, environmental markets;
  • to assist students to appreciate the importance of enforcement and compliance in designing and regulating environmental markets;
  • to develop an awareness of the different regulatory methods and processes needed to develop effective, functioning environmental markets;
  • to assist students to identify, understand and apply measures for determining the legal efficacy of environmental markets;
  • to assist students to develop advanced research skills the interdisciplinary study of regulation of environmental markets;
  • to assist students to recognise legal issues relating to the design and regulation of environmental markets in their subsequent careers and to point them in the direction of ways of resolving them.

Main Topics

  • Introduction to Environmental Markets
  • Types of Market Based Instruments
  • Overview of Major Environmental Markets
  • Commercial Aspects of Environmental Markets

Assessment

 
 Class participation including presentations  20%  
 Case Study  30%  
 Research Essay  50%  

Course Texts

Prescribed
Students are required to purchase reading materials from the UNSW Bookshop.

Resources

Refer to Course Outline provided by lecturer at the beginning of semester.
Law Books

Study Levels

UNSW Quick Links