Chapter-4
Legal Control of Pollution
Responsibilities of Government Agencies
•The responsibilities of the government agencies is
to formulate policies, strategies, laws and standards,
which foster social and economic development in a
manner that enhance the welfare of humans and the
safety of the environment sustainably and to
spearhead in ensuring the effectiveness of the
process of their implantation.
• Specifically the Agencies have the duty:
To prepare environmental protection policy and
laws, and upon approval, follow up their
implementation.
To prepare directives and systems necessary for
evaluating the impact of social and economic
development projects on the environment; monitor
and follow up their implementation.
Environmental Laws and Regulations
• Environmental law - or "environmental and natural
resources law" - is a collective term describing the
network of treaties, statutes, regulations, and
common and customary laws addressing the effects
of human activity on the natural environment.
• Classification of Environmental Laws
1. Administrative Laws
• Focus on the protection of the environment
• Example: EPA
• The United States Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA or sometimes USEPA) is an agency of
the U.S. federal government which was created for
the purpose of protecting human health and the
environment by writing and enforcing regulations
based on laws passed by Congress.
• The agency conducts environmental assessment,
research, and education.
• It has the responsibility of maintaining and
enforcing national standards under a variety of
environmental laws.
• It formulates law on air, water, land and hazardous
waste.
2. Informtion laws:
• Focus on generation and dissemination of
environmental information through research and
education.
3. Natural resourse laws:
• Enacted to protect natural resourses. Example soil,
water, minerals, biodiversity and energy.
• Environmental protection laws are a form of
legislature or policies that aim to protect the natural
resources of the Earth.
• Most environmental protection laws deal with the
improving the maintenance and sustainable use of
air, water, and land.
4. Pollution control laws:
• Focus on regulating the pollutants which create
toxic to human health and the environmeny.
• Example clean water act, clean ar act, noice control
act, toxcic substance control act and etc.
• The Clean Air Act (1970), enacted to abate
air pollution primarily from industries and motor
vehicles.
• The Clean Water Act (1972), regulating municipal
and industrial waste water discharges and offering
grants for building sewage-treatment facilities.
• The Clean Water Act
• The objective of this Act is to restore and maintain
the chemical, physical and biological integrity of the
Nation's waters.
• The Act has been amended numerous times and
given a number of titles and codification.
• It was originally enacted as the Water Pollution
Control Act in 1948, and was completely revised by
the 1972 amendments, the
Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments.
• The 1972 amendments gave the Act its current
form, and established a national goal that all waters
of the U.S. should be fishable and swimmable.
• The goal was to be achieved by eliminating all
pollutant discharges into waters of the U.S. by 1985
with an interim goal of making the waters safe for
fish, shellfish, wildlife and people by July 1, 1983.
The 1977 amendments (the Clean Water Act of
1977) gave the Act its current title.
• Additional amendments was enacted in 1987 the
Water Quality Act of 1987 .
• The Act regulates discharges to waters of the United
States through permits issued under the National
Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES)
permitting program.
The Environmental Protection Act 1990
• It is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom
that as of 2008 defines, within England and Wales
and Scotland, the fundamental structure and
authority for waste management and control of
emissions into the environment.
• It according to the act, any process or substance
and set limits on it in respect of emissions into the
environment.
Pollution Prevention Act of 1990
• The Pollution Prevention Act of 1990 (PPA) in the
United States created a national policy to have
pollution prevented or reduced at the source
wherever possible.
• The Pollution Prevention Act focused industry,
government, and public attention on reducing the
amount of pollution through cost-effective changes
in production, operation, and raw materials use.
The Clean Air Act
• It is designed to control air pollution on a national level.
• It requires the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to
develop and enforce regulations to protect the public from
airborne contaminants known to be hazardous to human health.
• The 1955 Air Pollution Control Act was the first U.S federal
legislation that pertained to air pollution.
• The 1963 act accomplished this by establishing a federal
program within the U.S. Public Health Service and authorized
research into techniques for monitoring and controlling air
pollution.
• In 1967, the Air Quality Act enabled the federal government to
increase its activities to investigate enforcing interstate air
pollution transport, and, for the first time, to perform far-
reaching ambient monitoring studies and stationary source
inspections.
• Major amendments to the law, requiring regulatory
controls for air pollution, passed in 1970, 1977 and 1990.
• The 1970 amendments greatly expanded the federal
mandate, requiring comprehensive federal and state
regulations for both stationary (industrial) pollution sources
and mobile sources.
• The 1990 amendments addressed acid rain,
ozone depletion and toxic air pollution, established a
national permits program for stationary sources, and
increased enforcement authority.
• The amendments also established new auto gasoline
reformulation requirements, set Reid vapor pressure (RVP)
standards to control evaporative emissions from gasoline,
and mandated new gasoline formulations sold from May to
September in many states.
Environmental laws and regulations in Ethiopia
The constitution of FDRE
• All persons have the right to live in a clean and
healthy environment.
• The government and Ethiopian citizens should have
the duty to protect the country’s environment and
natural resourse.
• Dessign and implementation of programs and
projects of development shall not damage or destroy
• The first comprehensive statements of Environmental
Policy of Ethiopia were approved by the Council of
Ministers in April 1997.
• By proclamation No. 9/1995 the Ethiopian
Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) has created
an environmental policy, as well as legal and regulatory
reforms to manage its environmental and natural
resources.
• The overall aim of the Ethiopian Environmental
Protection Authority (EPA) is to “… improve and
enhance the health and quality of life of all Ethiopians
and to promote sustainable social and economic
development through the sound management and use
of natural, human-made and cultural resources and the
Impact assessment
• Environmental impact assessment is the formal
process used to predict the environmental
consequences (positive or negative) of a plan,
policy, program, or project prior to the decision to
move forward with the proposed action.
• Formal impact assessments may be governed by
rules of administrative procedure regarding public
participation and documentation of decision
making, and may be subject to judicial review.
• An impact assessment may propose measures to
adjust impacts to acceptable levels or to investigate
new technological solutions.
International Environmental Conventions
• The publicity surrounding the UN Conference on
Environment and Development (UNCED), which took
place in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992, confirmed the
central place that global environmental concerns over
issues such as global warming and loss of biological
diversity have on the world political agenda.
• In fact, in the twenty years between the 1972
Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment and
the 1992 UNCED there has been not only a major
increase in awareness of the threats to the
environment from human activities on both a local and
global scale, but also a massive increase in the number
of international legal instruments governing
• Although certain basic principles, such as the
equitable utilization of shared resources or the
obligation not to allow activities which damage the
environment of neighboring states can be attributed
to judicial decisions derived from customary law,
treaties have without doubt been the main method
by which the international community has
responded to the need to regulate activities which
threaten the environment.
Pre-Stockholm
• Prior to the 1972 Stockholm Conference the
majority of environmental conventions related to
the conservation of wildlife.
From Stockholm to Rio
• The years 1972 to 1992 witnessed an astonishing
increase in the number and variety of international
environmental law.
• Much of this activity is directly attributable to the
Stockholm Conference.
• In order to provide an overview of the large
number of environmental conventions developed
during this period, they are divided into a number
of groups: nature conservation; protection of the
marine environment; and regulation of
transboundary environmental impacts.
Conservation of nature and natural resources
• The 1972 UNESCO Convention Concerning the
Protection of the World Cultural and Natural
Heritage,.
• The 1973 Washington Convention on International
Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
• The 1979 Bonn Convention on the Conservation of
Migratory Species of Wild Animals.
Protection of the marine environment
• The 1972 London Convention on the Prevention of
Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other
Matter.
• The 1973 International Convention for the
Prevention of Pollution from Ships, as amended in
1978.
• The International Convention on Oil Pollution
Preparedness, Response and Cooperation in 1990,
establishes a global legal framework for
collaboration and assistance in response to major
oil spills.
Transboundary impacts
• Principle 21 of the Stockholm Declaration provided
that States had “the responsibility to ensure that
activities under their jurisdiction and control do not
cause damage to the environment of other States
or of areas beyond national jurisdiction”.
• International conventions have been developed to
address issues such as long-range transboundary air
pollution, protection of the ozone layer, notification
and cooperation in response to nuclear accidents,
transboundary movement of hazardous waste and
global climate change.
Long-range transboundary air pollution
• Long-range air pollution in Europe was first addressed
by the 1979 Geneva Convention.
• The 1985 Helsinki Protocol on the Reduction of
Sulphur Emissions (aimed to reduce sulphur
emissions by 30% by 1993).
• The 1988 Sofia Protocol, Concerning the Control of
Emissions of Nitrogen Oxides or their Transboundary
Fluxes.
• And the 1991 Geneva Protocol, Concerning the
Control of Emissions of Volatile Organic Compounds
Transboundary implications of nuclear accidents
• World attention had been brought to the
transboundary implications of nuclear accidents
after the 1986 Chernobyl accident.
• The 1963 Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapon Tests in
the Atmosphere, in Outer Space and Under Water.
• The 1980 Vienna Convention on the Physical
Protection of Nuclear Material had attempted to
establish standards for the protection of nuclear
material from a number of threats, including
terrorism.
Protection of the ozone layer
• The 1985 Vienna Convention for the Protection of the
Ozone Layer imposes general obligations on each party
“in accordance with the means at their disposal and
their capabilities”.
• The Vienna Convention was supplemented by the 1987
Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the
Ozone Layer, itself adjusted and amended by the London
Meeting of 1990 and most recently by the Copenhagen
Meeting of November 1992 and Kyoto Protocol.
• Article 2 of the Montreal Protocol requires parties
to impose controls on ozone-depleting chemicals,
namely CFCs, halons, other fully halogenated CFCs,
carbon tetrachloride and chloroform.
• Article 5 provides an exemption from emissions
restrictions for certain developing countries, “to
meet (Their) basic domestic needs” for up to ten
years, subject to certain provisos set out in Article
5(2) (3).
• The Protocol also provides for technical and
financial cooperation for developing country parties
claiming exemption under Article 5.
• In Copenhagen in November 1992, in the light of the 1991
Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion, which found that
there was new evidence of ozone decreases in both
hemispheres at middle and high latitudes, a number of new
measures were agreed upon, subject of course to the
general regime outlined above; delays under Article 5 are
still possible for developing states.
• All parties were required to cease using halons by 1994, and
CFCs, HBFCs, carbon tetrachloride and chloroform by 1996.
• The use of HCFCs should be frozen by 1996, reduced 90% by
2015 and eliminated by 2030.
• Contracting parties agreed to “make every effort” to freeze
its use by 1995.
• The overall aim was to stabilize atmospheric chlorine loading
by the year 2000 and then reduce it to below critical levels
Transboundary movement of hazardous wastes
• Following a series of notorious incidents in which
shipments of hazardous waste from developed countries
were found in uncontrolled and hazardous conditions in
developing countries, the transboundary movement of
hazardous wastes was made the subject of international
regulation by the 1989 Basel Convention on the Control
of Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes and
their Disposal.
• The Organization of African Unity has however gone
further than this with its 1991 Bamako Convention on
the Ban of the Import into Africa and the Control of
Transboundary Movement and Management of
Hazardous Wastes within Africa, which seeks to ban
1992 and Post-Rio Conventions
• The Rio UNCED prompted, or coincided with, a large
number of new global and regional environment
conventions, as well as a major declaration of
principles for the future in the Rio Declaration on
Environment and Development.
• In addition to the two conventions concluded at Rio
—the Framework Convention on Climate Change
and the Convention on Biological Diver-sity—new
environmental conventions signed in 1992 included
those regulating the use of international
watercourses as well as the transboundary effects
of industrial accidents.
• The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change
• UNFCCC is an international environmental treaty, negotiated
at the United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development (UNCED), informally known as the Earth Summit
, held in Rio de Janeiro from 3 to 14 June 1992.
• The objective of the treaty is to "stabilize greenhouse gas
concentrations in the atmosphere".
• The treaty itself set no binding limits on greenhouse gas
emissions for individual countries and contains no
enforcement mechanisms.
• In that sense, the treaty is considered legally non-binding.
• Instead, the treaty provides a framework for negotiating
specific international treaties (called "protocols") that may set
binding limits on greenhouse gases.
The Kyoto Protocol
• The Kyoto Protocol, which has been ratified in
nearly 200 countries.
• The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in Kyoto, Japan, on
11 December 1997 and entered into force on 16
February 2005.
• The Kyoto Protocol is an agreement to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions, including carbon dioxide
and methane.
• The deal was fairly simple.
• Industrialised countries would be legally obliged to
cut their greenhouse gas emissions 5% on 1990
levels by 2008-2012.
• Developing countries – including China, India, Brazil
and South Africa – would face no restriction on their
emissions but were encouraged to adopt policies to
promote greener growth.
• There are currently 192 Parties (Canada withdrew
effective December 2012) to the Protocol.
• The Kyoto Protocol implemented the objective of
the UNFCCC to fight global warming by reducing
greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere.
US position
• The US signed the Protocol on 12 November 1998.
• But it is not binding in the US because:
1) did not require developing countries to make
emission reductions and
2) "would seriously harm the economy of the United
States".
• The US accounted for 36% of emissions in 1990, and
without U.S. ratification, only an
EU+Russia+Japan+small party coalition could place
the treaty into legal effect.
Withdrawal of Canada
• In 2011, Canada, Japan and Russia stated that they would not
take on further Kyoto targets.
• The Canadian government announced its withdrawal—possible
at any time three years after ratification—from the Kyoto
Protocol on 12 December 2011, effective 15 December 2012.
• Canada was committed to cutting its greenhouse emissions to
6% below 1990 levels by 2012, but in 2009 emissions were 17%
higher than in 1990.
• Environment minister Peter Kent cited Canada's liability to
"enormous financial penalties" under the treaty unless it
withdrew.
• He also suggested that the recently signed Durban agreement
may provide an alternative way forward.
• Canada's decision received a mixed response from
representatives of other ratifying countries.