Beyond Kyoto: A Symposium Addressing the Future of International Climate Change Policy

For a list of speakers and schedule, please visit http://students.law.ucdavis.edu/ELS/index.shtml. 

The Environmental Law Society and the Journal for International Law and Policy are co-hosting the spring 2008 symposium addressing the increasingly eminent issue of climate change.   The aim of the symposium is to address issues surrounding the development of an international agreement on climate change that will succeed the Kyoto protocol.  The symposium will host expert panelists ranging from economists, lawyers, professors and industry insiders to address issues surrounding the formation of an international climate change treaty.

The Kyoto protocol set out a system of stabilizing greenhouse gas emissions at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the Earth's atmosphere.  Countries that ratified the protocol agreed to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gasses by engaging in an emissions cap and trade system.  Despite such efforts, Kyoto has failed to achieve its objectives of stabilizing greenhouse gasses and negotiations for a post-Kyoto agreement are already underway.  

The first panel will discuss what a successor to Kyoto may look like and how such an agreement will address the problem of climate change.  The discussion will address mistakes made by Kyoto and the types of commitments that an international treaty will impose on nation-states regarding greenhouse gas emissions.

The economic impact of state compliance with the Kyoto protocol has been widely debated.   Opponents of the agreement argue that higher curbs on carbon emissions will result in a recession and outweigh the environmental concerns of global warming.  The second panel will discuss the economic concerns of implementing a climate change treaty and deliberate over the effect of various cost-effective policies in mitigating the effects of global warming.

Concluding the symposium, the final panel will discuss the relevance of international climate change agreements to the day-to-day practice of law and how an international agreement will affect California's environmental policies.

Panelists will speak to an audience of lawyers, professors, professionals, law students, and graduate students to discuss the future of international environmental law and climate change.  MCLE credits will be available at this event.