Introduction to the Research Handbook on Global Climate Constitutionalism

‘Anthropocene’ is a word describing a new geological era in which the dynamics of the Earth system, the very configuration of the planet, are mostly governed by human activity. This concept was proposed by Nobel Prize winner Paul J Crutzen in 2002, in a piece published in Nature.1 However, the term itself was coined by Eugene F Stoermer, who is said to have used it since the 1980s.2 In any event, the idea was not new, as Crutzen himself recognizes – he mentions Antonio Stopani as a precedent, who had written about the Anthropozoic Era as early as 1873.3 The term ‘Anthropocene’ accurately captures the historical moment in which humanity as a whole is now living, having been embroiled in a global environmental crisis since the end of the last century.4 At this moment, it seems established against all other contenders as the most apposite concept to describe this experience.5 For this reason, the concept of the Anthropocene has been used over the last 15 years in different contexts to capture the mood of the times and to provide an adequate frame for global environmental law in the present.6 The existence of reasonable criticisms about some misunderstandings associated with the term does not negate the validity of the Anthropocene concept. It expresses the situation of humanity confronted with the global transformation of the biosphere through anthropic action, which ends in a situation of self-sufficiency of social