What is Environmental Law?
Environmental law is the collection of laws, regulations, agreements and common law that governs how humans interact with their environment. The purpose of environmental law is to protect the environment and create rules for how people can use natural resources. Environmental laws not only aim to protect the environment from harm, but they also determine who can use natural resources and on what terms. Laws may regulate pollution, the use of natural resources, forest protection, mineral harvesting and animal and fish populations.
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What Environmental laws regulate?
Environmental laws cover a wide range of topics including the following:
Air Quality – Air quality laws protect the air from pollution and may include measures to protect the air from things like ozone depletion.
Water Quality – Environmental laws may protect water from pollution. They may also determine who can use water and how to handle potential problems like treating waste water and managing surface run off.
Waste Management – Municipal waste, hazardous substances and nuclear waste all fall in the category of waste management.
Contaminant Cleanup – Not all environmental law focuses on preventing pollution. Contaminant cleanup deals with addressing pollution after it happens. Laws may include protocols for cleanup as well as civil and criminal punishment for polluters.
Chemical Safety – Chemical safety regulations manage things like pesticide use and chemicals in products like plastic bottles.
Hunting and fishing – Environmental laws may regulate and protect wildlife populations. Lawmakers determine who can hunt and fish and how these activities are regulated.
Environmental laws in Nigeria has a track record of work with international organizations and is able to respond quickly and flexibly to the needs and requests of its partners and clients, although some common law principles and relevant and customary international law is emerging. Governments protect the environment on the basis of their various constitutional and statutory powers to promote the general welfare, regulate commerce and manage public lands, air, and waters.
National authorities may accept additional duties to protect the environment by entering into bilateral and multilateral treaties containing specific obligations.
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Environmental law, being a relatively new field, its largely contained in written texts, although some common law principles and relevant and customary international law is emerging. Governments protect the environment on the basis of their various constitutional and statutory powers to promote the general welfare, regulate commerce and manage public lands, air, and waters. National authorities may accept additional duties to protect the environment by entering into bilateral and multilateral treaties containing specific obligations. Promulgation of regulations and permits by administrative authorities like Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), DPR is another important source of environmental law.
Reporting, monitoring and civil and/or criminal actions to enforce environmental law are critical components of environmental law systems. Some constitutions also contain reference to some environmental rights or duties, making these constitutional provisions and their.
Some basic source of environmental law;
1) Government partners
2) Business partners
3) Private partners
• Advance environmental protection influencing actions and initiatives that can serve as catalyst for the enhancement of environmental law and policy;
•Provide objective, non partisan analysis of law and policies, and deliver education programs for the improvement of environmental protection and governance.
•Provide information services, advice and publications on environmental practices and programs.
•Provide training tools and support to citizen organization, government agencies, businesses, environmental managers, communities, indigenous peoples and various stakeholders.
•Engage in sponsored research related project pertaining to harmonization of laws and issues such as environmental justice, risk assessment and risk communication.
The range of subjects that potentially involve environmental issues has a breadth that extends across virtually the entire field of legal regulation.
Example;
• Antiquities laws may prohibit looting or unauthorized excavation of protected archaeological or natural sites.
• Regulation of agricultural activities may involve issues of the quality and quantity of water use, as well as limiting recourse to pesticides and fertilizers.
• Public health laws can regulate spraying toxics to eliminate disease vectors such as mosquitoes or raise questions about the safety of vaccines.
• Land use regulation and public trust doctrines may be used for environmental protection.
• Coastal zone management, fisheries and forestry law seek to conserve the resources they regulate.
Environmental Law in respect of Climate Change
•Many global issues are climate-related and thus may be affected by climate change. These include food security, availability of water etc.
•While it is acknowledged that climate change is an inherently global issue, the impacts vary across our planet. Some nations experience more adverse effects than others. Some nations however, are benefiting from the fall out of the Climate Change.
•Poorer nations are more vulnerable as they tend to be more dependent on climate-sensitive sectors (subsistence agriculture) and may lack the resources to buffer themselves against the changes that global warming may bring.
•Strategies have been developed and continue to evolve to address these issues.
•For a country like Nigeria with serious challenges of resource management, high level of poverty and severe lack of capacity, there is an urgent need for the implementation of appropriate adaptation measures such as water conservation, urban tree planting, grain storage, wildlife migrating etc.
• Regrettably, there are substantial limits and barriers to adaptation strategies. These includes: economics, environmental, information, social, attitudinal and behavioral barriers that are not yet fully understood.
•Interpretation and application is another potentially important source of environmental law. Litigation enforces the laws and regulations by civil or criminal actions. If a constitution contains a right to a specified environmental standard, the provision must be interpreted and applied. Issues may also arise as to the appropriate remedy, which constitutions usually do not specify.
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Besides defining obligations for regulated entities, statutory provisions may allow individuals to bring suit against an administrative body that abuses its discretion or fails to comply with its mandate, and in some circumstances allow for direct citizen action against the polluters themselves.
•The range of subjects that potentially involve environmental issues has a breadth that extends across virtually the entire field of legal regulation.
•Antiquities laws may prohibit looting or unauthorized excavation of protected archaeological or natural sites.
•Regulation of agricultural activities may involve issues of the quality and quantity of water use, as well as limiting recourse to pesticides and fertilizers.
•Public health laws can regulate spraying toxics to eliminate disease vectors such as mosquitoes or raise questions about the safety of vaccines.
•Land use regulation and public trust doctrines may be used for environmental protection.
•Coastal zone management, fisheries and forestry law seek to conserve the resources they regulate.
•Mining and energy laws may regulate the emissions of greenhouse gases and other air pollutants.
•Regulation of industrial activities may establish restrictions on emissions and effluent from industrial operations.
•Some environmental cases appear at first glance as consumer protection suits against the manufacturers or sellers of hazardous products. Other cases involve efforts to obtain information about environmental conditions or present actions against government officials and agencies that allegedly have failed to enforce the law. These many topics related to environmental law are regulated by various sources of national law.
Constitutional Law
•On the national level, many constitutions now contain provisions establishing environmental rights, or set forth governmental duties to protect the environment and the state’s natural resources. More than 100 constitutions refer to a right to a clean and healthy environment, impose a duty on the state to prevent environmental harm, or mention the protection of the environment or natural resources. At the same time references to constitutional environmental rights raise difficult questions of justifiability, remedies, and the scope and content of such rights. It remains to be seen what role constitutional environmental rights might play alongside common law, statutory, and regulatory means for protection of the environment.
Abdul A.