ABSTRACT
Almost all countries of the world have framed diverse act, laws, regulations and rules, etc. to protect the environment and biodiversity, to conserve and restore environmental quality and safeguard public health. Overviews of major environmental laws enacted by the USA, the European Union, Australia, Brazil, China, India, and South Africa are described in this chapter, and their implications are analyzed and discussed. These laws include those enacted for prevention of air, water, noise, solid waste, medical waste, hazardous waste pollution, and climate change, etc.; laws to protect and conserve forests and biodiversity, marine ecosystems, and different national heritage places; to conserve water resources; promote the use of renewable energy; to ensure drinking water quality; and others. Many of these laws have undergone periodic revisions to make them more effective and/or to accommodate new issues that arose in the recent years in most of the countries. However, in some rare instances in a few countries, laws have also been revised to relax many provisions to make them less stringent or to give advantage to select interest groups, industries, and corporations by allowing them to undertake activities at the cost of the environment.
