Mitigation of Climate Change

Two four year olds sit on the floor with a balloon between them. Their parents have told them that they own the balloon together. The children are now arguing about how the exercise the shared ownership. After a while they agree. With a marker, they draw a line around the balloon, dividing the balloon in two equal parts. When the markup is complete the one says "Now, I am going to puncture my part of the balloon".

Protection of the atmosphere cannot be done in parts, as it is dynamic and greenhouse gases to a large extent become well mixed before they are degraded or removed. Existing treaties address certain aspects of the protection of the atmosphere, but do not work well for climate change mitigation.
To lecture about current efforts to develop international legislation on the protection of the atmosphere, we have invited Shinya Murase. Murase is a professor of international law and secretary of The International Law Commission (ILC), Protection of the Atmosphere. The ILC is composed of 34 international lawyers working in their individual capacities. The International Law Commission was established by the UN General Assembly in 1947, to "initiate studies and make recommendations for the purpose of ... encouraging the progressive development of international law and its codification". Edvard Hambro and Jens Evensen were both members of ILC.
It is the aim that the ILC's set of guidelines on the Protection of the Atmosphere in the future will form the basis for elaborating a framework convention, dealing with the questions of both transboundary air pollution and climate change in a comprehensive manner.
After professor Shinya Murase's presentation, professor Beate Sjåfjell will present the main features of the proposed Norwegian climate law, and seen in the light of the work in ILC.

Program

18:00  Welcome by Nils Christian Stenseth, Chair of the Committee for Climate, Environment and Natural Resource Use, The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
18:05  "Protection of the Atmosphere and International Law - The Work of the UN International Law Commission"
Shinya Murase, Professor Emeritus, Jochi (Sophia) University, Tokyo
18:45  "The Norwegian proposal for a climate law"
Beate Sjåfjell, Professor, Institute for Private Law, University of Oslo
19:05  Break with refreshments
19:25  Discussion, questions and comments
20:00  Close