Introduction

International environmental law has tended to regulate specific environmental media and/or resources rather than particular activities or products. There is, however, a significant emerging body of rules which regulate those activities or products considered by the international community, within a region or globally, to be hazardous or dangerous and to merit specific attention. This chapter describes those rules by reference to international regulation of five areas, namely: (a) accident prevention, preparedness and response; (b) the classification, international trade, and transportation of hazardous chemicals and pesticides; (c) the working environment; (d) radioactive materials; and (e) biotechnology. This chapter also identifies and outlines the main international regulations which address activities considered to be particularly damaging to the environment, such as energy, mining, transport and agriculture. It will be apparent that the past few years have seen significant developments, in particular the adoption of legally binding instruments on international trade in chemicals and pesticides (1998), on trade and marketing of living modified organisms (2000) and on the production and use of persistent organic pollutants (2001).