David Freestone (George Washington University – Law School) has posted The International Climate Change Legal and Institutional Framework: An Overview (UNSW Law Research Paper No. 2009-39, LEGAL ASPECTS OF CARBON TRADING, David Freestone & Charlotte Streck, eds., Oxford University Press, Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
In December 2009 the Parties to the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will meet at the 15th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) in Copenhagen to agree the fundamental principles of the legal regime that will apply post 2012. This chapter provides an overview of the complex regime established by the Convention, the processes leading up to the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol and key implementation challenges it has experienced. It introduces some of the key processes and institutions and describes some of the key concepts that will be further developed in later chapters. It also discusses briefly the explosive growth of carbon trading and the challenges faced by the UNFCCC parties at Copenhagen.