HL lenses (applied across all Topics) practice questions.

A state's environment minister signs a new multilateral environmental agreement at a conference. Until the state's own legislature has approved it, the agreement

• binds the state immediately, because signature is the decisive legal act
• applies only to the state's overseas territories
• is enforced by the United Nations on the state's behalf
• expresses intent but does not yet bind the state in international law

Answer: expresses intent but does not yet bind the state in international law

Signature authenticates the text and creates only an obligation not to defeat its object; ratification, acceptance or accession creates the binding obligation. Most agreements also enter into force only once a threshold number of states has ratified, which is why counting signatures overstates a treaty's reach.

Which feature of the Montreal Protocol most helped it to meet its targets, in contrast with the Kyoto Protocol?

• Few firms produced the controlled chemicals, and substitutes existed.
• More heads of state signed it at the opening conference.
• Its reduction targets were voluntary rather than legally binding.
• It applied identical phase-out deadlines to developed and developing states.

Answer: Few firms produced the controlled chemicals, and substitutes existed.

A narrow, concentrated industry with workable substitutes made compliance cheap and monitoring straightforward, and trade restrictions on non-parties made staying outside costly. Greenhouse gases arise in every sector of every economy, so that design could not simply be transferred to the climate regime.

A government refuses a licence for seabed mining on a poorly surveyed part of its own continental shelf, stating that the applicant must first show that the seabed communities will not be permanently damaged. This decision applies

• the polluter pays principle
• the precautionary principle
• common but differentiated responsibilities
• the principle of state sovereignty over natural resources

Answer: the precautionary principle

The precautionary principle reverses the burden of proof: where an activity threatens serious or irreversible harm, the proponent must demonstrate safety rather than the regulator demonstrating harm. Polluter pays allocates the cost of damage once it has occurred, which is a different question.

A species is listed in Appendix I of CITES. A zoo in another country wishes to import two individuals for a captive breeding programme. Under the convention this is

• prohibited outright, because Appendix I bans all movement of listed species
• permitted freely, because zoos are exempt from the convention
• permitted only with both export and import permits for a non-commercial purpose
• decided by the exporting state alone, without any reference to the importing state

Answer: permitted only with both export and import permits for a non-commercial purpose

Appendix I bans commercial international trade but allows tightly permitted transfers for research, captive breeding or education, and both the exporting and the importing state must issue a permit. Appendix II species may be traded commercially provided an export permit certifies that the trade is not detrimental to the wild population.

The principle of common but differentiated responsibilities holds that

• all states face identical obligations, since the atmosphere is shared
• only states now emitting above the global mean per capita are obliged to act
• obligations pass to whichever state hosts the treaty secretariat
• states share the goal but carry obligations scaled to capability

Answer: states share the goal but carry obligations scaled to capability

Written into the 1992 climate convention, the principle keeps a common objective while recognising that industrialised states caused most historical emissions and have greater capacity to act. It is the legal reason why the Kyoto Protocol placed binding targets on Annex I parties only.

A port authority begins charging cargo ships a fee for every tonne of sulphur dioxide emitted while berthed. In economic terms this fee is best described as an attempt to

• internalise a negative externality
• convert natural income into natural capital
• raise the discount rate applied to future damage
• compensate shipping firms for the cost of cleaner fuel

Answer: internalise a negative externality

The respiratory illness and corrosion caused by sulphur dioxide are costs borne by residents rather than by the shipowner, and a charge per tonne moves that cost onto the polluter's own accounts so it shows up in the freight price. While the cost stays external the market price understates the true social cost and too much is emitted.