Meng Zhang
Postdoc
Governance of Climate Technologies: the Role of International Environmental Law in Regulating and Facilitating Carbon Capture and Storage
Author
Summary, in English
Governance issues surrounding technologies are profound. This is best illustrated in the context of climate change that does not only exert severe, pervasive and multifaceted impacts on the environment and on the everyday lives of people around the world, but also further aggravates the tension between law, technology and the public in a broader societal context. As a response to feckless global actions to address climate change, much of the discussion over climate mitigation measures has focused on climate technologies. Among all these climate technologies stands a good example: carbon capture and storage (CCS) – a bridging technology that is often hailed as a game changer in the ever-changing climate game – which vividly reflects the complexity of the multi-dimensional challenges of climate technologies in its technological, environmental, economic, political, societal and ethical aspects. The subsequent governance issues surrounding CCS are therefore neither straightforward nor uncontroversial. However, the progress of the legal studies on this theme is relatively lagging behind, especially the response of research works in the field of international law is even more obsolete.
Against this background, the ambition of this thesis is to propose a sound governance of climate technologies which does not only prevent the trade-off between technological impacts and climate benefits through regulations, but also promotes the efficiency of technological deployment through facilitations and at the same time protects the resilience and fairness of the society during this process in a broader perspective of a ‘living’ law. In this pursuit, this research aims at using the role of international environmental law in governing CCS as a case study to review multifaceted governance issues along the full-value chain of the deployment of the climate technology, to recast the model of conducting studies surrounding the theme of climate technology governance, to reshape the theoretical pillars underlying this theme, and to re-orient new paths of governing climate technologies. With the central question ‘what the role of law is in the governance of climate technologies such as CCS’ at the heart, this thesis is taking its root in a broad governance context beyond the law, strengthening a fundamental theoretical pillar, drawing a general governance framework, and focusing on the specific level of international environmental law.
Against this background, the ambition of this thesis is to propose a sound governance of climate technologies which does not only prevent the trade-off between technological impacts and climate benefits through regulations, but also promotes the efficiency of technological deployment through facilitations and at the same time protects the resilience and fairness of the society during this process in a broader perspective of a ‘living’ law. In this pursuit, this research aims at using the role of international environmental law in governing CCS as a case study to review multifaceted governance issues along the full-value chain of the deployment of the climate technology, to recast the model of conducting studies surrounding the theme of climate technology governance, to reshape the theoretical pillars underlying this theme, and to re-orient new paths of governing climate technologies. With the central question ‘what the role of law is in the governance of climate technologies such as CCS’ at the heart, this thesis is taking its root in a broad governance context beyond the law, strengthening a fundamental theoretical pillar, drawing a general governance framework, and focusing on the specific level of international environmental law.
Publishing year
2021-09-20
Language
English
Document type
Dissertation
Publisher
Ghent University
Topic
- Law and Society
Status
Published
Supervisor
- Luc Lavrysen