Abstract
This chapter will provide an introduction to the notions of Sustainable Development and ‘best available techniques’ (BATs), which appear ever so often in treaties and other international legal documents.
The aim is to demonstrate the rising importance and usefulness of such notions, especially nowadays with an unprecedented proliferation in international treaties and legislation regulating environmental issues. The reader will be able to understand these, arguably, inherently vague notions and come to terms with the fact that this element of uncertainty is both a disadvantage and an advantage. The material presented and documents referred to in the present chapter do not offer an exhaustive analysis of this topic but have been selected as being representative and, most importantly, demonstrative of the key elements that characterise sustainable development and ‘BATs’. Treaties and documents have been selected from both international and European level to provide the reader with a better view of how these notions permeate the entire range of relations between States.
The main points of consideration in this chapter will be:
i) The emergence of the notion of sustainable development and its adoption in a large number of international treaties.
ii) The key elements of which sustainable development consists.
iii) Its legal status, i.e. whether it customary international law and therefore binding on all States or
‘soft law’.
iv) The connection between sustainable development and other notions such as ‘precautionary principle’, ‘environmental impact assessment (EIA)’ and most importantly ‘BATs’.
v) The notion of BATs and their representation in international treaties and EU legislation.
vi) The process through which material is being gathered and recommendations being made regarding BATs in various sectors of the industry. In addition to this, an important question to be considered is, once again, whether these recommendations are binding or not.
The aim is to demonstrate the rising importance and usefulness of such notions, especially nowadays with an unprecedented proliferation in international treaties and legislation regulating environmental issues. The reader will be able to understand these, arguably, inherently vague notions and come to terms with the fact that this element of uncertainty is both a disadvantage and an advantage. The material presented and documents referred to in the present chapter do not offer an exhaustive analysis of this topic but have been selected as being representative and, most importantly, demonstrative of the key elements that characterise sustainable development and ‘BATs’. Treaties and documents have been selected from both international and European level to provide the reader with a better view of how these notions permeate the entire range of relations between States.
The main points of consideration in this chapter will be:
i) The emergence of the notion of sustainable development and its adoption in a large number of international treaties.
ii) The key elements of which sustainable development consists.
iii) Its legal status, i.e. whether it customary international law and therefore binding on all States or
‘soft law’.
iv) The connection between sustainable development and other notions such as ‘precautionary principle’, ‘environmental impact assessment (EIA)’ and most importantly ‘BATs’.
v) The notion of BATs and their representation in international treaties and EU legislation.
vi) The process through which material is being gathered and recommendations being made regarding BATs in various sectors of the industry. In addition to this, an important question to be considered is, once again, whether these recommendations are binding or not.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Environmental and Energy Law |
| Editors | Karen Makuch, Ricardo Pereira |
| Place of Publication | London |
| Publisher | Wiley-Blackwell |
| Pages | 37-60 |
| Number of pages | 24 |
| ISBN (Print) | 978-1-4051-7787-0 |
| Publication status | Published - Sept-2012 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- sustainable development
- international environmental law
- Best Available Technique
- Best Available Technology
- BAT