International Environmental Law (2018)

The field of international environmental law is highly relevant to the prevention of, preparedness for, response to and recovery from disasters. Most obviously, environmental law is important because poorly managed environmentally hazardous situations can directly cause or contribute to the occurrence of both slow-onset and sudden-onset disasters, while various disaster events, such as oil spills, volcanic eruptions, forest fires or climate disasters can also lead to widespread, irreparable environmental damage, including to vulnerable habitats and eco-systems as protected under international treaties.1 In addition, as discussed below, it is increasingly recognised that environmental treaties may be instrumental to adequately managing disaster risk and keeping human settlements safe, in the sense that they protect essential eco-system services of nature. In fact, definitions of “disasters”, including in the ilc’s Draft Articles on the Protection of Persons in Event of Disasters, often refer to ‘environmental’ aspects of disasters, both in terms of ‘natural’ hazards or in terms of environmental damage sustained.2 Before assessing some key developments during 2018, it is worth to briefly note that “international environmental law” tends to suffer from some similar problems as “international disaster law”, especially in that both fields lack a clear “core” treaty which anchors the key legal principles. Instead, relevant provisions of international environmental law are contained in loosely interrelated regional and international multi-lateral environmental agreements (meas),