Part V Subject Matter, Ch.29 Climate Change

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of international regulatory efforts to address climate change. It focuses on the UN climate change regime, which comprises the 1992 UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change), the Kyoto Protocol, the Paris Agreement, and decisions of parties under these instruments. However, the universe of climate change law extends well beyond the UN climate change regime. There are rules and principles of general international law, such as the harm prevention principle, due diligence, and state responsibility, which apply to climate change. There are treaty regimes and institutions, including those addressing other areas of international environmental law or other fields of international law, which intersect with, complement, and function to implement the UN climate change regime. There are also a multiplicity of rules, regulations, and institutions at the regional, sub-regional, and national levels that directly or indirectly address climate change, many of which have been put in place in response to the UN treaties.