UNSW Handbook Course - Environmental Markets

Environmental Markets - LAWS8366


	Faculty: Faculty of Law
	School: Faculty of Law
	Course Outline: See below
	Campus: Kensington Campus
	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, 9210, 5740 or 9230
	Fee Band: 3 (more info)
	Further Information: See Class Timetable

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.

LLM Specialisation

Corporate, Commercial and Taxation Law

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.

Order from UNSW Bookshop

Recommended
None

Resources

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