The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties in Paris, in 2015, will be an important juncture in international environmental law as the world seeks to break new ground in climate negotiations. The latest issue of the Environmental and Planning Law Journal – Vol 32, Pt1, Jan 2015 – features a timely article which considers the approaches which should be taken in a 2015 climate change agreement, particularly the “pledge and review” approach. See Celliers A, “The Scope of a 2015 Climate Change Agreement: A Mixed Top-down/Bottom-up Approach to Universal Participation” (2015) 32 EPLJ 46.

One of the various proposed responses to anthropogenic climate change, which has been mooted in Australia during recent years, is carbon capture and storage. An in-depth article featured in this issue of EPLJ focuses upon a central area of CCS regulation that has not been comprehensively addressed in the existing literature. See Dwyer GJ, “Emerging Legislative Regimes for Regulating Carbon Capture and Storage Activities in Australia: To What Extent do they Facilitate Access to Procedural Justice?” (2015) 32 EPLJ 3.

Another timely article analyses four pieces of new and reformed Queensland environmental planning legislation introduced between 2012 and 2014, and assesses whether they have contributed to the elimination of duplication and procedural inefficiencies, and the cutting of red tape, which was the Queensland Liberal National Government’s aim. See England P, “Regulatory Obesity, the Newman Diet and Outcomes for Planning Law in Queensland” (2015) 32 EPLJ 60.

Finally, the eternal and complex issue of managing water resources in Australia is addressed in Papas M, “The Way Forward: Are Further Changes to Australia Water Governance Inevitable?” (2015) 32 EPLJ 75.

For details see full Table of Contents.

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