Climate Change, Forests and Federalism

Book excerpt: Climate change is one of the most serious global challenges facing humankind. Climate change has enormous environmental and economic implications, and finding a solution is a daunting task. The purpose of this book is to look at the global problem of climate change through the prism of an individual country's attempt to tackle this problem. This book begins with a discussion of the origins of climate change and the evolution of the international response to climate change. Key climate change mitigation actions and policies are considered to provide the necessary framework for analysing Australia's approach to climate change. Australia's climate change policy development is considered from a historical perspective. The book traces the evolution of the response to climate change, focusing on Australia as one of the Federal countries unable to adequately reduce greenhouse gas emissions due to the systematic failure of the Australian government to develop a common and effective approach to the problem of climate change. The book will be of interest to scholars and students of environmental law and the contemporary International and Australian climate change law.