Recognizing culture, and diverse sources of knowledge, can improve assessments

In 2009–2010 Sydney Water, the primary water utility in Sydney, conducted a comprehensive Smart Metering trial in residential homes in the suburb of Westleigh, in Sydney's north. The trial involved 1923 participants residing in 630 households. A whole‐of‐community method of engagement was applied to capture the views of residents from 12 to 70+ years of age. The trial examined the effects of the technology on the water consumption of an intervention group compared with that of a matched control group. After removing properties that had been sold since the beginning of the trial, properties in the study group were matched with a control group property on the basis of the household size, property size and the presence (or otherwise) of a swimming pool. The effects of the technology on consumption were measured and analyzed for the period July 2009 to June 2010, coupled with qualitative information that was collected throughout the duration of the study. A key finding was that households with the in‐home display (IHD) installed, reduced their consumption by an average of over 6.8% over the study period when compared to the control group. Since completion of the study the community has not had any further interventions. The trial created an opportunity to examine the longer‐term effects of the technology (June 2008 to September 2013). Consumption data collected over the 3 year posttrial period revealed that the participant group consumed 6.4% per month less water when compared to the pretrial period, whilst the matched control group consumed 1.3% per month more water when compared to the pretrial period. The reduced consumption of the participant group was maintained over time, demonstrating the long‐term value of this technology.

The Declaration on Human Rights and Climate Change responds to the profound crisis of human hierarchies now characterizing the climate crisis. The Declaration, initiated prior to the 2015 COP 21 meeting by scholars from the Global Network for the Study of Human Rights and the Environment (GNHRE), is one of a convergence of initiatives reflecting the need to understand human rights as intrinsically threatened by climate change. This article introduces the Declaration, the necessity for it, its philosophical and legal background and its support by contemporary cases providing evidence of the escalating legal need for such a tool. A key aim of the Declaration is to trace out a potential normative approach for establishing responsibility towards the planet and redressing unevenly distributed vulnerabilities and climate injustices while recognizing that it is vital that respect for human rights should be understood as an indispensable element of any adequate approach to climate change. The Declaration strives to offer a compelling level of ethical appeal, as well as to be legally literate and philosophically rigorous. The drafting process engaged scholars and communities from across the world, prioritized indigenous involvement, and drew on indigenous ontologies and epistemologies. Newer philosophical approaches such as new materialist understandings of lively materiality also informed the drafting process. Accordingly, the language of the Declaration creates space for non-Western ways of seeing and being as well as responding to insights emerging from new scientific understandings of the world.

Zoonotic viruses have sacrificed hundreds of millions of people throughout human history. There are currently 1.7 million unidentified viruses estimated to be circulating in mammal and bird populations. It is foreseeable that in the near future, another of these will transmit to people, heralding the start of the next pandemic—one potentially more deadly than COVID-19. At the core of this article is a call for pre-emptive protection of the natural environment and its regenerative systems as the first fundamental step in the prevention of future epidemics and pandemics. While zoonoses originate in nature, the predominant legal discipline, managing these crises, is international health law which is invoked reactively once an outbreak has been reported. In this paper, we identify the need for a legal shift in epidemic and pandemic responses. In particular, we call for the incorporation of international environmental agreements to prevent the initial viral spillover from animal to human populations. We propose a strategy of strengthening existing agreements and a coupling of legal disciplines, such as health and environmental law, emphasizing the need for synergies across legal disciplines to enhance the emergence and management of future pandemics and epidemics. We introduce Coupled Human and Natural Systems (CHANS) Law to frame the required integration across legal instruments to regulate inextricably human-nature connections and advocate for the development of a Convention on Epidemics and Pandemics.