Legal issues regarding the climate change in Romania

Transcription

1 Legal issues regarding the climate change in Romania FLORIN FAINISI Faculty of Law and Public Administration Spiru Haret University Soseaua Berceni no.24, Bucharest ROMANIA Abstract: Climate change is one of the major challenges of our century - a complex field where knowledge and understanding help taking proper measures to effectively address, in terms of costs, the effects of climate change. Climate change affects everyone, both globally and nationally. The current requirements for Romania in this field, resulting from its integration in the European Union, and from the international commitments under the United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol, have led to the preparation of a good approach on climate change, on short, medium and long term. By implementing actions to reduce emission of greenhouse gas in the economy and by preparing to adapt to the unavoidable effects of climate change, Romania will be able to provide the best conditions for its participation in these processes. Keywords: climate change, global warming, national legislation, Romania 1 Introduction The change in Earth s climate and its adverse effects is a concern for the whole humanity. Climate change impact is reflected by the increasing average temperature, having important variations at regional level, the reduction of water resources available to the population, by ice volume reduction, by increasing sea levels, by changing hydrological cycle, by changes in the course of seasons, by increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, by reducing biodiversity. According to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Global Climate Change (IPCC) [1] of 2007, human activities (burning fossil fuels, changing functions of land etc) contribute significantly to increasing greenhouse gas emission (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, sulfur hexafluoride), determining a change in the composition of the atmosphere and global warming. The idea regarding the contribution of carbon dioxide in changing global climate belongs to the Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius, who in 1890 argued that the explanation for glacial cycles change was the alteration in the greenhouse intensity by changing the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration. The greenhouse effect appears as a consequence of the radiation-active gas, transparent to incident solar radiation but which absorb radiation emitted by the heated surface of the Earth and send some of it back into the atmosphere. Arrhenius anticipated an increase in the Earth's surface temperature of 5 C, in case the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration doubles. His estimate is close to current evaluations and equals the thermal variations that characterized the last major glacial and interglacial cycles. Despite Arrhenius warnings, a century has passed until the political systems of the world began to recognize and address this problem. In the early 1990s, global warming occupied an important place on the international political agenda, when more than 150 countries signed the United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change, at the Earth Summit, in 1992 [2]. Since then, many nations (especially those who committed to meet the specific targets and timetables under the Kyoto Protocol of 1997) have taken steps to reduce greenhouse gas emission. Global warming and climate change are among the most serious environmental problems facing the international community today. Each individual is involved and must be properly informed. This information should include evidence, impacts and actions that can be taken to minimize the negative effects of the system of Earth s climate change [3]. ISBN:

2 2 The evolution of climate in Romania The climate in Romania is influenced by its position on the globe (crossed by the 45 parallel north and the meridian 25 longitude east), as well as its geographical position on the continent. These features give Romania a temperate continental climate. Though the extension of the country on the latitude (5 ) is smaller than the longitude (10 ), there are greater differences between the south and north of the country in terms of temperature, than between east and west. If the average annual temperature in the south is about 11 C, in the north, at comparable altitudes, the values of this parameter are lower with about 3 C. The assessment performed by the specialists have shown that the changes of climate in Romania fit into the global context, taking into account the regional conditions: temperature rise will be higher in summer, while the northwestern Europe is expected to suffer a higher rise in winter. According to the estimates presented in the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Global Climate Change, in Romania is expected an increase in the annual average temperature in comparison to the period , as in Europe; there is little difference between models results regarding the first decades of the XXI century, but there is a significant difference between the models regarding the end of the century (between 0.5 C and 1.5 C for the period ; between 2.0 C and 5.0 C for ). In terms of rainfall, over 90% of weather patterns predicted for the period serious drought during summer in Romania, especially in the south and south-east (with negative deviations in comparison to the period by more than 20%). In terms of winter precipitation, the deviations are lower and the uncertainty is higher. Local and regional changes in climate conditions will affect ecosystems, and infrastructure works executed by man. Expected changes in the temperature and precipitation can lead to changing periods of vegetation and displacement boundary between forests and pastures. Extreme weather events (storms, floods, and drought) may occur more often, and risks and damage can become significant. Areas affected by drought have increased in recent decades in Romania [4]. Global warming involves currently, two major problems to mankind: on the one hand the need to drastically reduce emission of greenhouse gas to stabilize the concentration of this gas in the atmosphere to prevent the influence of anthropogenic climate system and ecosystems to enable natural to adapt naturally, on the other hand need to adapt to climate change, since these effects are already visible and unavoidable due to the inertia of the climate system, regardless of the outcome of actions to reduce emission. 3 Reduction of greenhouse gas Given the global climate changes observed during the previous decades, the major question is to assess climate change in the following decades. The complexity of the climate system, the different nature of its component subsystems, and interaction of these components require the use of extremely complex numerical models that are based on physical and chemical laws that simulates the behavior of these subsystems. In addition, the influence of anthropogenic factor introduces uncertainty over the evolution of greenhouse gas emission in the future. Scientists analyze certain scenarios regarding the emission from which are developed global scenarios of climate change. Emission scenarios take into account the characteristics of development of human society in the future, characteristics that include political decisions. The more realistic these emission scenarios for the greenhouse gas are, the more realistic the scenarios of climate change for the following decades are. Simulations performed based on different models show differences between various scenarios, but they share the opinion that the climate is warming. Almost without exception, researchers and specialists say that due to the system inertia, the climate continues to get warmer, even if greenhouse gas concentration stabilizes. In Romania, the first concerns about global warming and climate change materialized in 1992 by signing the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. In 1994, Romania clearly expressed the political will to meet commitments arising from this document, by ratifying the Convention (Law no. 24/1994 [5]). Subsequently, Romania strengthened this commitment by signing the Kyoto Protocol to the Convention in 1999, being among the first countries to ratify it, by Law no. 3/2001 [6]. Kyoto Protocol entered into force internationally on February 16, After Romania signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, by which it committed to take action in order to stabilize concentrations of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system, the level to be achieved within a sufficient period of time to enable ecosystems to adapt naturally to climate change, so that food production is not ISBN:

3 endangered and economic development to take place in a sustainable manner; the Government Decision no. 1275/1996 established the National Commission on Climate Change, aimed at promoting measures and actions required to implement the provisions of the Convention. The first steps towards implementation of a national, uniform, coordinated action, directed both to stabilize emission of greenhouse gas and to the potential effects of climate change that will occur regardless of mitigation activities, materialized in the development of the Romanian National Strategy on Climate Change, adopted by Government Decision no. 645/2005. In order to implement the Strategy, it was adopted the National Action Plan on Climate Change, approved by Government Decision no. 1877/2005. This document contains specific actions, including their funding sources and the institutions designed to meet the general and specific objectives of the Strategy, in The actions proposed by this document were implemented almost entirely. After Romania joined the European Union, the National Climate Change Strategy for was elaborated; it outlines the country s policies to meet the international obligations incumbent on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol, and the requirements of European Union and Romania's priorities on climate change. The general objectives of the Strategy aim to implement the national and international cooperation activities to reduce emission of greenhouse gas and adapt to climate change on short, medium and long term, while pursuing the development of a sustainable, durable and competitive Romanian economy and society. Since 2008, Romania has had a National System for Estimating Anthropogenic Greenhouse Gas Emission from sources and removals by sinks, regulated by Government Decision no.1570/2007 [7]. This framework established the competences and cooperation between the institutions responsible for providing necessary data to estimate emission, information necessary to prepare reports, the procedural steps regarding the anthropogenic emission estimation, reporting, archiving and data storage, in order to ensure transparency, consistency, comparability, and accuracy of National Inventory of Greenhouse Gas Emission, while respecting the obligations under the Kyoto Protocol and/or under European law. 4 Romania's participation in the EU greenhouse gas emission allowance trading scheme (EU ETS) The trading scheme for greenhouse gas emission allowance was designed to support EU Member States in achieving CO 2 reductions under the Kyoto Protocol, in an efficient manner in terms of costs. By Government Decision no. 780/2006 [8], Romania transposed the provisions of Directive 2003/87/EC of the European Parliament and of 13 October 2003 establishing a scheme for greenhouse gas emission allowance trading within the Community, and amending Council Directive 96/61/EC on integrated pollution prevention and control. Also, this law transposed Directive 2004/101/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 October 2004 amending Directive 2003/87/EC establishing a scheme for greenhouse gas emission allowance trading within the Community, in respect of the Kyoto Protocol s project mechanism. Subsequently, Government Decision no. 780/2006 was amended by Government Decision no. 133/2010 which transposed the provisions of article 1.10 of Directive 2009/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2009 amending Directive 2003/87/EC so as to improve and extend the greenhouse gas emission allowance trading scheme of the Community. Also, Government Decision no. 780/2006 was amended by Government Decision no. 399/2010 which transposed the provisions of Directive 2008/101/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 November 2008 amending Directive 2003/87/EC so as to include aviation activities in the scheme for greenhouse gas emission allowance trading within the Community and article I.13 of the Annex I of Directive no. 2009/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2009 amending Directive 2003/87/EC so as to improve and extend the greenhouse gas emission allowance trading scheme. In order to implement Commission Regulation (EU) No 1031/2010 of 12 November 2010 on timing, administration and other aspects of auctioning of greenhouse gas emission allowances pursuant to Directive 2003/87/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a scheme for greenhouse gas emission allowances trading within the Community, Romania adopted the Emergency Ordinance No. 115/2011 regarding the establishment of the institutional framework and the authorization of the Government, through the Ministry of Public Finances, to tender the ISBN:

4 greenhouse gas emission certificates assigned to Romania at European Union level. This emergency ordinance takes into account the Memorandum on "responsibilities arising from the implementation of auctions for greenhouse gas emission certificates", approved in Cabinet meeting of 3 August 2011, when the Ministry of Public Finances was appointed the institution responsible for acting as auctioneer on the common platform to auction greenhouse gas emission certificates and charged with auctioning the allowances for greenhouse gas emission, both for the year 2012 and for the period beginning with In addition, the ordinance establishes specific tasks to other competent authorities responsible for implementing the Regulation: Ministry of Environment and Forests, the National Authority for Regulating and Monitoring Public Procurement, the Regulatory Authority for Energy, the National Securities Commission and the National Office for Prevention and Control Money Laundering. To make possible Romania s participation in this scheme, was developed the National Allocation Plan for 2007 and , approved by Government Decision no. 60/2008, published in the Official Gazette, Part I, no.126 of 18 February Romanian National Allocation Plan describes the methodology and principles on which the allocation is made, presents the total number of certificates to be allocated and the number of certificates allocated to each sector and each installation. The number of certificates for greenhouse gas allocated in is 379,721,760 (for the entire period), with an average value of 75,944,352 annually. According to Government Decision no. 780/2006, Romania allocates certificates for greenhouse gas emission free of charge. The new entrants reserve unused at the end of the period shall be auctioned. 5 Adapting to climate change Since emission of greenhouse gas in the near future does not imply mitigating the effects of global warming, adaptation to climate change should be an important element of national policy. The sooner the adaptation measures are taken, the lower the adjustment costs will be. In order to limit the economic and social costs of climate change in Romania, there must be increasing awareness regarding climate change impacts, vulnerability and adaptation. The specific objective is therefore to put climate change issues on education and research agendas in order to raise public awareness and participation of the interested parties in Romania to climate change issues [9]. Thus, it was necessary to develop and promote the "Guidelines on adaption to the climate change effects" [10], adaptation identified also in the National Strategy and National Action Plan on Climate Change. The objective of the "Guidelines" is the increasing adaptability of Romania to the current and potential effects of climate change by: - monitoring the impacts of climate change and associated socio-economic vulnerability; - integrating the measures for adapting to climate change into the development strategies and sectoral policies, and their harmonization; - identifying the specific measures for adapting the sectors vulnerable to climate change. The Guideline aims to provide a better understanding of the anticipated impacts of climate change by 2030, by analyzing the estimated evolution of climatic factors on long-term, the economic development scenarios and the particularities of natural systems, within identified limits of uncertainty. In order to reduce Romanian s vulnerability to climate change impact, the entire society must be involved to support the efforts to ensure the necessary resilience to the negative effects that global warming will generate in the future, by mobilizing all resources for adaptation measures provided in this document. In this sense, the guidelines propose: - creating a multiannual research programme on adaptation to climate change, based on proposals from the ministries involved, to develop approaches and methodologies for assessing the impact of policies and measures for adaptation to climate change and to improve risk assessment and the adaptation possibilities; - updating scenarios on climate change in Romania by the National Administration of Meteorology and posting on the website of the Ministry of Environment of public information; - each institution responsible must submit the list of existing studies on the field or related field to the Ministry of Environment, in order to be consulted; - raising awareness on adaptation to climate change by organizing annual awareness campaigns; - integrating issues regarding adaptation to climate change in current and future laws and policies of Romania; - reviewing the budget for all national strategies and programmes in order to include aspects regarding adaptation into sectoral policies etc. ISBN:

5 The aim of the Guidelines is to identify, based on existing economic resources, the measures necessary to limit the negative effects predicted by climate scenarios, projected on medium and long term (decades). The measures outlined will be implemented through collaboration with local authorities and by providing appropriate technical assistance. 6 Conclusions A climate change is caused directly or indirectly by human activities that alter the composition of Earth's atmosphere and can be noticed for periods of time comparable to natural climate variability. Limiting climate change and its costs and negative effects for society and the environment is an objective of the European Union Sustainable Development Strategy. According to the recent figures presented by the European Commission, the average temperatures in Europe rose by 1 C in the last century and are expected to rise further; the closest scenario sets the rise to 2 C by Exceeding this threshold is considered as an extreme threat to Earth. Changes in the Romania s climate are similar to the global context, but having the particularities of the country s geography and location. Climatic data of the last century show a gradual warming of the atmosphere and a significant reduction in precipitation. Therefore, in Romania, the impact of climate change on agriculture, forestry, water management and human settlements represents an increasing concern. Even if action is taken today, years or even decades will pass, until the accumulation of greenhouse gas decreases and is absorbed by forests and oceans. The effects of climate change are expected to become more pronounced before getting improved. It is clear that we can not stop what has already started, but we can slow the global warming process by all measures taken internationally and transposed into the national law, Romania being more dedicated than ever to implement the Kyoto Protocol on reducing carbon emission. The issue is to avoid the acceleration of climate change, as it could completely exceed our ability to adapt. If changes are too important and happen too fast, and they exceed 2 C limit, we could face the danger of human species extinction. So it is not only about saving the planet from climate change, but about protecting ourselves as a species and, of course, the environment that ensures the evolution of our species. References [1] IPCC, 2007: Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland, 104p ( [2] Sarah B. Pralle, Agenda-setting and climate change, Environmental Politics, Vol. 18, No. 5, 2009, p [3] Richard Snow, Mary Snow, The Challenge of Climate Change in the Classroom, WSEAS Transactions on Environment and Development, Issue 1, Volume 6, January 2010, p [4] Gabriela Teodorescu, Climate change impact on urban ecosystems and sustainable development of cities in Romania, WSEAS Transactions on Environment and Development, Issue 2, Volume 6, February 2010, p [5] Law no. 24/1994 ratifying the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, signed in Rio de Janeiro on 5 June 1992 was published in the Official Gazette, Part I, no. 119 of 12 May 1994 [6] Law no. 3/2001 ratifying the Kyoto Protocol to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, adopted on 11 December 1997, was published in the Official Gazette no. 81 of 16 February 2001 [7] Government Ordinance no. 1570/2007 regarding the establishment of the National System for estimating anthropogenic greenhouse gas emission by sources and removals by sinks, regulated by Kyoto Protocol was published in the Official Gazette, Part I, no. 26 of 14 January 2008 [8] Government Ordinance no. 780/2006 regarding the establishment of a scheme for greenhouse gas emission allowance trading was published in the Official Gazette, Part I, no. 554 of 27 June 2006 [9] Gabriela Teodorescu, op.cit. [10] Ministerial Order no 1170/2008 of the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development to approve the Guidelines on adaptation to the climate change effects was published in the Official Gazette, Part I, no. 711 of 20 October 2008 ISBN: