On The Low-carbon Development Legislation

Legislation of carbon development stems from addressing climate change issues.The background of proposing low-carbon development is that global warming challenges to human survival and development.Based on the analysis of the relationship between carbon emissions and climate warming and the introduction of international low-carbon development legislation,it studies on the approaches of protecting and improving the ecological environment through new legal order,and then promotes the harmonious relationship between human and nature and achieves sustainable development in the environmental,economic and social level.In addition to the introduction and conclusion,this dissertation is divided into five chapters.The first chapter is "Overview of Low-carbon Development and Its Legislation".The concept of low-carbon development realizing economic and social sustainable development through lower emissions of greenhouse gas.There are several differences among low-carbon development,cycle development and green development.Green development tends to a relatively vague concept,which is directive function.However,in concrete practices,the realization of green development has to rely on the low-carbon development and cycle development.The relationship between low-carbon development and cycle development is parallel.Both of them are important path to achieve sustainable development.The relationship between low-carbon development and green development is inclusive.Green development contains low-carbon development.Among the cycle development,low-carbon development and green development,low-carbon development is the only highly restrictive approach to development,which is relatively easy to put into practice.The historical background of low-carbon development and its legislation is ecological civilization construction.Ecological civilization is the value of low-carbon development legislation.Low-carbon development legislation is the basic way to build ecological civilization.In essence,low-carbon development legislation belongs to the category of ecological law legislation.Ecological energy legislation has become the core area of low-carbon development legislation.By promoting the ecological energy legislation,it can alleviate the contradiction of economic development,energy supply and environmental protection.Furthermore,it can promote low-carbon development.The second chapter is "The legislation of low-carbon development:basis and foundation".From the perspective of scientific basis for the low-carbon development,the foundation of the philosophy of law and the rational basis,it elaborates the legislative basis for low-carbon development.The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC)climate science consensus has become the important scientific basis of the international community to address climate change regime and establish low-carbon development system.IPCC assessment reports affirms the inherent association of carbon emissions and global warming.Thus,the substantial and sustainable reductions in greenhouse gas emissions is the key point of limiting climate change risks.Climate warming belongs to ecological and environmental problems,which is rooted in the relationship between human and nature.Deep reflection of the relationship between man and nature from the philosophical level has become the starting point and foothold to solve the environmental problems,including global warming.Modern anthropocentrism affirms that the exist of the whole nature is meaningful and valuable.Furthermore,it holds that the developing extent of human relations determines the developing extent of the relations between man and nature.Therefore,we should emphasize on human relations and regulate it through system and law.And ultimately resolve the relationship between man and nature,promote the low-carbon development of human society and achieve harmony between man and nature.Environmental rights are the basic concept of substantive law of low-carbon development legislation.The basic theory of environmental rights is an important part of the philosophicalization of many basic problems of environmental law and it has an important foundation for low-carbon development legislation.The environment should be defined as the relationship between man and nature or the combination of man and nature.Climate change is the most serious market failures in the world,by far.Based on the "economic man",the existing legislation to low-carbon development has many drawbacks.The most obvious one is the lack of global cooperation.In the era of ecological civilization,the legislative basis for low-carbon development should be based on the legal concept of ecological standard,and connect the concept of "eco person" with the "political people" to build a low-carbon development system.The third chapter is "The legislation of low-carbon development:values and principles".The value system of low-carbon development legislation includes ecological harmony value,ecological order value,ecological safety value,eco-efficiency value and climate justice value.Ecological harmony refers to the entire ecosystem maintains a harmonious,beautiful and healthy state,which includes the harmony among people,the harmony between human and biological,as well as the harmony among all beings and environments.The low-carbon development legislation is committed to ecological harmony.In other words,ecological harmony is the core value of low-carbon development legislation.Ecological civilization requires the maintenance of human social order,meanwhile,we must also pay attention to the natural order.The innovation to low-carbon technology and its system is an important path to realize low-carbon development.The ecological order value of low-carbon development legislation can realize by reasonable distribution and benefits coordination.Ecological security can be summarized as the existing state of keeping man and nature from unfavorable factors and the improvement of fragile system.The security value of carbon sequestration legislation plays a significant role in low-carbon development legislation.The ecological justice value demands the low-carbon development legislation can make the party enjoy equal carbon emission rights and at the same time give special treatment to the weak party.Climate justice is the core value of low-carbon development legislation.The issue of climate justice concerns is how to define the rights and obligations of the parties under the premise of limited capacity of climate capacity.Meanwhile,it emphases that the subjects must be treated fairly and rationally in the distribution of benefits and burdens in the field of climate change.Based on the type analysis of climate justice,the structure of climate justice connotation layer can be integrated as follows:climate distribution justice?generational climate justice?climate correction justice?international climate justice(?domestic intergenerational climate justice?domestic endowment climate justice).Low-carbon development legislation should consider the relationship between costs and benefits.That is,we should pursue efficiency value.The ecological efficiency value means low-carbon development legislation achieves the unity of environmental benefits,economic benefits and social benefits through the efficiency..Carbon development legislative principles mainly include the precautionary principle,the principle of sustainable development,the principle of fairness,the principle of proportionality,the principle of international cooperation.The precautionary principle is the basis of all the principle of low-carbon development.The precautionary principle excludes the interference of "climate change skepticism" and contributes to take positive actions.Principles of sustainable development has become a core principle of low-carbon development legislation,which takes sustainable use of natural resources and good ecological environment as the basis,takes the economic sustainable development as the premise and seeks overall progress of society as the goal.The principle of fairness concerns on both the world today and the future world.And it focuses on both the procedural issues and the substantial issues.In the field of low-carbon development,the principle of fairness refers to the fairness on time and space.The space fairness on carbon consumption is not static,but dynamic.It includes the equity of whole stock,no matter in the history,reality and the future.The principle of proportionality means that although the exercise of power is necessary to achieve the purpose of public interest,but it should not to exceed the value of giving the people.In addition,it also includes two specific principles:appropriate principle and minimal invasion principle.In the field of low-carbon development,The environmental interests of measures to control greenhouse gas emission is greater than the loss to the party.If there are multiple choices of controlling measures for greenhouse gas emission reduction targets,the state should select the measure which minimally limits the subjects.The principles of international cooperation,refers to in the international environment field,each country conducts extensive and close cooperation through adopting common environmental resources protection measures,and then,they achieve the purpose of protecting the international environment.In the areas of low-carbon development,the subject of cooperation is diverse and the scope of cooperation is broad.The forth chapter is " The legislation of low-carbon development:Foreign Practice and Experience enlightenment ".The development of international legislation in low-carbon development mainly includes the introduction of international legislation on low-carbon development and the introduction of the UNFCCC,the acceleration of international legislation on low-carbon development and the introduction and entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol,the follow-up treaty negotiations after the entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol,the introduction and entry into force of the Paris Climate Agreement.On the basis of elaborating the legislative course,it'll analyze the main texts of international legislation on low carbon development:The "United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change"(hereinafter "UNFCCC")and "Kyoto Protocol" are the public consciousness of the international community,which is the legal basis for addressing climate change and realizing international cooperation of low carbon development.This paper introduces these two documents and carries out a comprehensive study.On December 12th 2015,the 21th UN Conference on Climate Change reached the"Paris Agreement",which is regarded as the milestone.In this document,it made institutional arrangements of the overall climate change mechanism and defined the new model of the global response to climate change which refers to the developed and developing countries fully participating according to the "national ownership contribution".This is the beginning of a new order of global climate.As powerful climate interest groups,they have established a relatively complete legal system of low-carbon development.The EU Member States not only have implemented the directives of EU,but also have promoted low-carbon development legislation.The number of low-carbon development legislation in the United Kingdom is larger,the time is earlier and the level is higher.So it has laid the institutional foundation of long-term low-carbon development.Germany does not have a bill and a policy known as "low-carbon" in the name,but it has made substantial achievements in a low-carbon transformation,infrastructure transformation is to establish a low-carbon economy,and it has established the economic,safe and environmental energy systems and carbon emissions trading system.As the representative of the"umbrella" country,the United States and Japan have made long-term plan to develop a national low-carbon development and build up a basic law as the leading to low-carbon development.Developing countries are in the period of industrialization which means carbon emissions are strengthening and most of these countries are taking measures for legislation.The Paris Agreement emphasizes that there is an inherent relationship between climate change actions,responses,impacts and sustainable development and poverty eradication.Therefore,the developing countries can reasonably arrange their own voluntary emission reduction targets for a longer period of time.From the point of view of the connotation of climate justice,it should be based on international climate justice to moderately adjust or correct the objectives of independent contribution of developing countries and accept the guidance,procedures arid guidelines established by the Ad Hoc Working Group of the Paris Agreement to achieve the value of climate justice.The fifth chapter is " The legislation of low-carbon development:The Present,Problems And Strategies in China".China is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world.Because China is in the middle and late stage of the industrialization,the energy consumption is huge and the amount of carbon dioxide emissions is high.Low-carbon development is the only way in China.China has formulated many policies of low-carbon development and enacted a number of regulations.When addressing the issue of climate change and low carbon development,China is the same to the other countries in the world and the policies and regulations of China is in a relatively leading position.These policies include macro-economic policy,energy policy and renewable energy policy,as well as carbon sequestration policies.In terms of legislation,there are some provisions of carbon emission reduction in the energy law.Meanwhile,there are some articles of carbon sequestration in the ecological law.These two legislations constitute the basic legal environment of low-carbon development in China.However,the current laws and regulations of low-carbon development in China is not enough to support the long-term,systematic and effective low-carbon development.The rational basis of legislation is fragile.The philosophy of legislation is lagging.The number of low-carbon legislation is small.The legal system of low-carbon development is scattered.The legislation of low-carbon development in China drives from two aspects:exogenous international pressure and endogenous national promotion.As a new milestone in the development of global climate governance,the Paris Agreement establishes a "national contribution" model,which has become new requirements for China's low-carbon development legislation."National self-emission reduction model" is that each country has made their own targets to response to climate change.The model established by the Paris Agreement is a combination of "bottom-up" and "top-down" emission reductions.China should establish a reasonable and independent contribution based on the "per capita cumulative carbon budget" program.Based on interpersonal fairness and guidance under the "per capita cumulative carbon emissions budget" program,we should establish the basis of independent contributions.And then,based on international fairness,we should make appropriate adjustment or correction of China's independent contribution targets.Firstly,we should strengthen the international cooperation and safeguard our national interests.Secondly,we should make legal policy integration,improve legislation and bring the local legislation into play.Last but not least,we should design the legislative system of low-carbon development rationally and establish the relevant legal system and mechanism of low-carbon development.