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Climate change has proved to be one of the greatest threats to human survival on Earth. Its mitigation requires that the greatest Greenhouse Gases (GHG) emitters adopt low carbon development, reducing emissions substantially. Brazil is among them. Although deforestation is still the main source of Brazilian emissions, since 1990 emissions from energy systems and industrial processes have increased and their shares in total Brazilian emissions have been consistently larger. It is the objective of the article to analyse Brazilian energy-climate policy and politics from 1990 to 2014 in order to clarify Brazilian progress towards low carbon development and Brazilian positions in the international climate change regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scientific evidence suggests that to have a 75 per cent chance of limiting warming in 2100 to 2°C above the pre-industrial level, the cumulative emissions of CO2 over the period 2010-50 should be capped at 657.1 Gt. The objective of this article is to examine the distribution of such an emission budget by applying different ethical perspectives. In particular, the article first analyses the paths for sharing the emission budget, that is, the major families of distributive patterns that vindicate a number of elementary principles and criteria of distribution. Subsequently, it presents and discusses the shares of the emission budget attributed to states, regions and groupings of states according to the paths investigated and it draws some reflections on the implications of such shares for the ethics of mitigation. Finally, it advances some lessons for international climate policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the growing phenomenon of climate change litigation in the USA and Canada. It explores the expanding context in which this litigation is occurring and highlights key successes and failures of these actions. In the absence of a comprehensive federal framework in both countries, the article shows how litigation is being used by claimants to attempt to require government action in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and to force private entities to do the same and to pay damages. Whether a piecemeal approach to climate change engendered through litigation can provide a solution to this global issue remains to be seen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers the author's insights on the role of assessing the contribution of a community to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in climate change mitigation. The authors say that international organizations have developed protocol for measuring community-scale emissions. They state that communities consume and import materials and goods that are made elsewhere. They cite the significance of measuring emissions for the relevance and usability of GHG inventory. They add that local governments have focused on emissions that are related to in-boundary energy use.