International Climate Change Legal Frameworks

Climate Change, Coming Soon to A Court Near You—Report Four

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• Publisher: Asian Development Bank
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9789292625399
• eBook ISBN: 9789292625405
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Global Warming & Climate Change
• Index: Biological Sciences

In 2020, the Paris Agreement is the pinnacle of international law on climate change. It orchestrates global climate action over the coming decades. Countries agreed to limit global warming to well below 2°C above preindustrial times, closer to 1.5°C. Humankind will only achieve this temperature goal if we domesticate our international climate commitments. Judges have proven to be instrumental in holding their governments accountable for their climate pledges. Report Four of this four-part series explores the nature of the Paris Agreement, its history, and the framework of international instruments and international legal principles that support global and domestic climate action.

Building climate resilience. Village girls in Nepal play on a dam that is part of an erosion control structure in the village, to slow down flash floods. Extreme rainfall, which translates into massive floods, is a climate change impact felt throughout Asia and the Pacific. The region is home to the most number of climate-vulnerable people in the world (photo by Gerhard Jörén/ADB).

PART ONE

INTRODUCTION

Domestic adjudication has increasingly driven climate change governance in the last decade. Courts in Asia,¹ Europe,² the Americas,³ Africa,⁴ and the Pacific⁵ have had to contend with how climate change intersects with constitutional, commercial, administrative, civil, international, environmental, and human rights law. Strategic litigation, especially cases aiming to cut emissions, has also been used to link domestic action with collective global targets.

This report forms part of a series of reports on climate law and policy for judges in Asia and the Pacific. Judges play a crucial role in protecting the rule of law, helping their nations achieve climate resilience, and advancing human and constitutional rights. Familiarity with global comparative jurisprudence and international and national legal frameworks helps judges in the adjudication process—making this information a crucial element of the judicial tool kit on climate change.⁶

Report One of this series provides information about climate science and lays out the introduction to the report series. Report Two focuses on global climate jurisprudence, specifically comparing between the judicial approaches in Asia and the Pacific and the rest of the world. Report Three discusses national legal frameworks.

This report (Report Four) presents an overview with a regional perspective of the international legal framework governing climate change law and policy. National courts use international concepts and instruments in their judgments. The report seeks to build the capacity of judges in Asia and the Pacific to effectively reference relevant treaties and principles when adjudicating climate change cases. It covers 31 countries in Asia and the Pacific (Table 1.1).

Table 1.1: Regions and Countries Covered by the Report

South Asia	Southeast Asia	Pacific
Afghanistan	Cambodia	Cook Islands
Bangladesh	Indonesia	Federated States of Micronesia
Bhutan	Lao People’s Democratic Republic	Fiji
India	Malaysia	Kiribati
Maldives	Myanmar	Marshall Islands
Nepal	Philippines	Nauru
Pakistan	Singapore	Palau
Sri Lanka	Thailand	Papua New Guinea
	Viet Nam	Samoa
		Solomon Islands
		Timor-Leste
		Tonga
		Tuvalu
		Vanuatu

Source: Authors.

While the report does not lay out a detailed commentary of each international instrument, it provides basic information on

(i)what the relevant legal frameworks articulate;

(ii)which countries have signed, ratified, accepted, or acceded to treaty-based instruments;

(iii)what principles of international law outside the conventional regime are binding on states, either as generally accepted principles or as rules of customary law;⁷ and

(iv)what instruments, while not legally binding, inform state practice and the progressive development of law.

The report follows the structure in Table 1.2. It describes each international instrument and, when appropriate, the circumstances of its adoption. It covers the following topics: (i) international climate law framework (in the strict sense); (ii) related global multilateral environmental instruments; (iii) regional instruments from South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific; and (iv) human rights-based instruments that are not strictly climate-focused, but have been interpreted to include the rights impacted by climate change. The report also highlights when an instrument principle may simultaneously be regarded as a customary norm or a general principle of law, thus binding states independent of the instrument.

Table 1.2: International Instruments Covered by the Report

International climate change legal framework

Pre-United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Work (1992) • United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 1721 (XVI) • The Stockholm Declaration (see details in...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Tables and Boxes
• Forewords
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Executive Summary
• Part One. Introduction
• Part Two. International Climate Change Legal Framework
• Part Three. Multilateral Environmental Legal Instruments
• Part Four. Regional Environmental and Climate Change Instruments
• Part Five. Rights-Based Instruments
• Part Six. Key Takeaways
• Part Seven. Conclusion
• Back Cover