This is a final exam. I would like somebody to write 5 pages for each question following the instructions below. Your answers should be from your own words after reading the course readings I have attached.

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Home >Social Science homework help >This is a final exam. I would like somebody to write 5 pages for each question following the instructions below. Your answers should be from your own words after reading the course readings I have attached.

Unit Learning Objectives

After reading this unit, you will:

· Explain how international environment law evolved, identify some of its major principles and concepts, and understand the contexts in which they apply

· Identify some of the main instruments (treaties/conventions, declarations, resolutions) that inform the substantive content of international environment law, and discuss critically some of the challenges to the making and implementation of international environment law.

· Identify some of the rules and regulations created to address climate change and conserve biological diversity, and understand some of the main challenges to their effective implementation.

Unit Plan and Summary

This unit discusses the role of international law in the governance of the global environment and sustainable development. We begin with an examination of the evolution of international environment law, highlighting the major UN sponsored initiatives that have given impetus to the elaboration of new principles, concepts and agreements, especially the notion of 'sustainable development'. We then proceed to discuss two examples of international environment treaties (climate change and biological diversity) that attempt to translate notions of sustainable development into binding rules and regulations embodying some of the key principles of global environmental governance that have emerged over the past 40 years.

Outline

1. The Evolution of International Environment Law

2. Making and Implementing International Environment Law

3. Climate Change

4. Biological Diversity

Readings

· Fuentes, Ximena. “International Law-Making in the Field of Sustainable Development: The Unequal Competition Between Development and the Environment.” International Environmental Agreements 2, no. 2 (2002): 109–133. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1020990026398.

Readings for Briefs

· Hiskes, Richard P. “The Right to a Green Future: Human Rights, Environmentalism, and Intergenerational Justice.” Human Rights Quarterly 27, no. 4 (2005): 1346–1364.

· Risse, Mathias. “The Right to Relocation: Disappearing Island Nations and Common Ownership of the Earth.” Ethics & International Affairs 23, no. 3 (2009). doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-7093.2009.00218.x.

· McIntyre, Owen, and Mosedale, Thomas. “The Precautionary Principle as a Norm of Customary International Law.” Journal of Environmental Law 9, no. 2 (1997): 221–241. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jel/9.2.221.

Key Concepts

· Precautionary Principle

· Polluter Pays Principle

· Common Heritage Principle (Res Communis)

· Common but Differentiated Responsibilities

· Framework-Protocol Approach

· State Responsibility (Good Neighbourliness)

· Transboundary Environmental harm

· Stockholm Declaration

· Rio Declaration

· Climate Change Mitigation & Adaptation

· Sustainable Development

· Access & Allocation

· Public Goods, Private Goods and Merit Goods

· Environmental Refugees

· Carbon offsets & Certified Emissions Reductions (CERs)

· Carbon Sinks

· Emissions Trading

· Clean Development Mechanism

· Joint Implementation

· REDD

· Biological Diversity

· Latitudinal Gradients & Species Diversity

· Fair and Equitable Sharing

· Living Modified Organisms (LMOs)

Evolution of International Environmental Law

International environmental law is perhaps the newest area in contemporary international law, with most analysts tracing its emergence to the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (UNCHE) held in Stockholm, Sweden. International instruments designed to protect the environment did exist prior to 1972, in the mandates of international organizations such as the Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) mandate for the conservation of natural resources, and the International Labor Organization's (ILO) standards on occupational hazards in the work place, for example. There were also a number of treaties such as transboundary agreements on water resources. Prior to 1972, however, rules for the protection of the environment came primarily in the form of customary international law. We begin by examining briefly these customs and then proceed to trace the evolution of international environmental law, focusing on the major UN-sponsored world conferences including the UNCHE in 1972, the 1992 UN Conference on the Environment and Sustainable Development, the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002, and the 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development.

Customary International Law and the Environment Prior to 1972

In customary international law, issues concerning the natural environment were defined in terms of states' territorial jurisdiction. Under the doctrine of state responsibility, while a state had sovereignty over the natural resources within its territory, it also had a duty to protect other states against injurious acts from within its borders, and was held responsible for any damage to the environment of another state. Injured states had the legal right to insist on the abatement of such harm. Support for the existence of such a customary principle, also known as the principle of 'good neighbourliness', is found in a number of judicial decisions, the most well-known being the Trail Smelter case (USA v. Canada, 1938). 1 Thus, although each state has the jurisdiction to act in the manner they choose within their territorial jurisdiction, they also have an obligation not cause transboundary environmentalharm that adversely affected other states.

Thus, customary rules for the protection of the environment operated within a state-centric paradigm that emphasized inter-state claims to transboundary environmental harm. As a result, it suffered from at least three major weaknesses.

1. Although state responsibility did include a notion of preventing environmental harm, in practice the emphasis was on reparations that arose after transboundary environmental harm had occurred. The system was essentially bilateral and adversarial in that the injured state whose territorial rights were would press a judicial claim against the offending state.

2. The system was bilateral in character in that only states directly affected by a transboundary problem had the legal standing to press a claim. Thus, for example, a state that did not share a watershed with another state could not press a claim against the latter if it was involved in polluting underground water.

3. Environmental issues were defined in terms of states' territorial boundaries. The notion of territorial boundaries is somewhat absurd when attempting to deal effectively with problems such as air and water pollution, ozone depletion, ecosystem preservation, climate change, and other issues arising from the global commons that do not fit into states' territorial demarcations.

Because of these weaknesses, although state responsibility remains a cornerstone of international environmental law, since the UNCHE in 1972 it is widely recognized that dealing effectively with contemporary environmental issues requires a multilateral preventative regime rather than a bilateral adversarial one. 2

Common Heritage (of Humanity) Principle

In addition to state responsibility, Common Heritage (an extension of res communis) is another principle that informs contemporary international environment law. Common Heritage holds that defined territorial areas and elements of humanity's common heritage (cultural and natural) are to be protected from exploitation by individual states or corporations, harnessed for the benefit of all humanity, and held in trust for future generations. The principle, for example, is applied to the ocean floor, seabed, and Antarctica. The common heritage principle is also found in the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, the 1979 Moon Treaty, and was incorporated into the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS III, articles 136-37). The Principle also informs efforts to preserve places of cultural and historical value such as the various UNESCO 'World Heritage Sites'.

The 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment (UNCHE)

Contemporary efforts to create a multilateral legal and institutional framework to govern the global environment date only to 1968 when the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted resolution 2398 (XXIII) convening the UNCHE. The Conference adopted the Stockholm Declaration – twenty-six principles that for the next twenty years provided the foundation of international environmental law.

The Stockholm Declaration

The Stockholm Declaration asserted that a healthy environment was a human right essential to a "life of dignity and well-being" (principle 1). It also reaffirmed the customary principle of state responsibility (principles 21-23) that had provided the basis for the limited approach to environmental regulation in traditional international law. However, as applied in subsequent multilateral instruments, Stockholm's principle 21 has been interpreted as imposing an obligation on states, not merely to make reparations for transboundary environmental harm, but to take suitable measures to prevent future environmental damage. Since 1972, this expanded definition of state responsibility explicitly to include prevention and control has formed the basis of numerous multilateral treaties on the environment including the ozone conventions, and treaties dealing with pollution. The Stockholm Declaration also placed emphasis on adopting a multilateral approach to the management of the environment by calling on states and international organizations to "play a coordinated, efficient and dynamic role for the protection and improvement of the environment" (principle 25).

Another major outcome of the 1972 UNCHE was the creation of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) in December 1972 by the UNGA. Since its inception, UNEP has emerged as the central coordinating agency for global environmental management. UNEP has been active in drafting international and regional treaties dealing with various aspects of the environment and in environmental monitoring. Indeed, prior to 1972, there were relatively few multilateral agreements concerning the environment. Since 1972 over 1000 international instruments have been created consisting primarily of treaties and resolutions and declarations by international organizations.

Sustainable Development

Another significant factor in the evolution of contemporary international environmental law was the emergence of the concept ofsustainable development. Although the natural environment is the life-blood of socioeconomic development, many contemporary environmental problems are rooted in inappropriate patterns of development. The traditional paradigm that shaped the relationship between humans and the natural environment since the industrial revolution held that economic growth, which was essential to the development of society, was made possible by the exploitation of natural resources. The environment was little more than a resource to be used and exploited. When environmental problems arose, they were seen as discrete technical problems requiring technical solutions, rather than as inter-connected problems producing wide-ranging and often unforeseen consequences that required socioeconomic and political as well as technical solutions.

The genesis of the concept of sustainable development can be traced to the activities of UNEP. Since the early 1970s, UNEP has been a leader in promoting the view that environmental issues should be addressed within their socio-economic and political contexts, as well as within the economic and financial framework provided by the prevailing global political economy. This early attempt at linking environment and development was captured in the concept of 'ecodevelopment', which, although generally consistent with what subsequently became known as sustainable development, lacked an integrated vision of multilateral governance. The term sustainable development was popularized through the work of the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED, also known as the Brundtland Commission). The WCED was established in 1983 by the UNGA to explore the relationship between the environment and development and to make recommendations. Its 1987 publication, Our Common Future, became the blueprint for subsequent global negotiations over sustainable development. 3

The WCED report and its preliminary documentation challenged traditional approaches in at least two important ways. The first was the tendency to focus on the effects of environmental problems rather than the causes; the second was the separation of environment issues from development issues. Sustainable development, then, as elaborated by the WCED, attempts to treat the environment and the economy as a unity rather than as two separate spheres. According to the WCED report, sustainable development is "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs." Development is as a progressive transformation of an economy and society, and the satisfaction of human needs and aspirations is or should be the major objective of development. Sustainable development, then, is "a process of change in which the exploitation of natural resources, the direction of investments, the orientation of technical development, and institutional change are all in harmony and enhance both current and future potential to meet human needs and aspirations."

Since the WCED report's publication, debates over sustainable development have centred on how to solve the environmental paradox – the mismatch between the demands placed on Earth's resources and what Earth is capable of supplying. Two broad views on how to solve this paradox have emerged in the literature. The first, 'weaker sustainability' (or 'shallow environmentalism') sees the solution in the expansion of the stock of resources by, for example, developing renewable resources, creating substitutes for non-renewable resources, and applying new technologies to solve problems such as resource depletion and pollution. The second view, 'stronger sustainability' (or 'deep ecology'), argues that nature is finite and thus rather than attempting to adapt the natural environment to meet the increased demands of the world's population, the demands made on the world's resources need to be changed and reduced. 4

Sustainable development thus broadened the agenda of international environment law to include environmental problems related to development (and underdevelopment) that affected the 'global commons'. These include climate change, depletion of stratospheric ozone, preservation of biodiversity, acid rain, the international traffic in toxic substances, and the destruction of the environment in times of armed conflict – problems that are of concern to all countries, developed and developing.

The 1992 United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development (UNCED)

In 1989, the UNGA passed resolution 44/288 convening a conference on the environment and development based on the 1987 WCED Report. The conference – United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development (UNCED, also known as the Rio Conference or the Earth Summit I) – was held in June 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The UNCED produced five major documents including the Rio Declaration on Sustainable Development, Agenda 21, UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, a Convention on Biological Diversity, and a set of Forest Principles. The Rio Declaration contains principles and guidelines that set the international agenda for sustainable development cooperation into the twenty-first century.

The Rio Declaration

The Rio Declaration contains 27 principles that not only reaffirmed the principle of state responsibility set out in the Stockholm Declaration of twenty years earlier (principle 2), but expanded the Stockholm formulation by linking explicitly environmental protection and development as related goals. The Rio Declaration may thus be seen as an attempt to expand the traditional customary rule of state responsibility explicitly to include the goal of sustainability. Principle 1 places human beings at the centre of concerns over sustainable development stating that they are "entitled to a healthy and productive life in harmony with nature". Principle 3 reaffirms a 'right to development', and principle 4 states that in order to achieve sustainable development for present and future generations "environmental protection shall constitute an integral part of the development process and cannot be considered in isolation from it." The Rio Declaration is also significant for elaborating on three more principles that have become pillars in contemporary global environmental governance because they and are considered to be part of customary law.

Common but Differentiated Responsibility (Principle 7)

This principle states that although all states have a common interest to conserve, protect and restore the natural environment, they bear differential responsibility for environmental degradation. Hence, "In view of the different contributions to global environmental degradation, States have common but differentiated responsibilities. The developed countries acknowledge the responsibility that they bear in the international pursuit of sustainable development in view of the pressures their societies place on the global environment and of the technologies and financial resources they command".

Precautionary Principle (Principle 15)

"In order to protect the environment, the precautionary approach shall be widely applied by States according to their capabilities. Where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation."

Polluter Pays Principle (Principle 16)

"National authorities should endeavour to promote the internalization of environmental costs and the use of economic instruments, taking into account the approach that the polluter should, in principle, bear the cost of pollution, with due regard to the public interest and without distorting international trade and investment.

The 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD)

The World Summit on Sustainable Development Summit (WSSD) took place in Johannesburg, South Africa, in August and September 2002. The WSSD was supposed to be an implementation-focused summit and as such, no major new agreements were signed. Instead, the focus was on the practical and sustained steps needed to address some the world's most pressing problems, especially global poverty and the deteriorating natural environment.

The 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio + 20)

The 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in June 2012 – twenty years after the first 1992 Earth Summit in Rio. No new major agreements came out of this conference. The official discussions focused on two main themes: how to build a 'green economy' to achieve sustainable development and lift people out of poverty; and how to improve international coordination for sustainable development.

Making & Implementing International Environment Law

International cooperation in sustainable development occurs within a multilateral framework of rules and the institutions charged with implementing those rules (see Table 1 below for a selected list of international environmental treaties). The primary methods of international rule-making include multilateral treaties (hard law), as well as soft law resolutions and declarations passed at international conferences (such as the Rio Declaration) and the regulations and standards established by international organizations. The multilateral treaty is the primary mechanism for making binding rules on various aspects of the environment.Table 1 below provides a selected list of major international Environmental Agreements.

Table 1: Selected List of Major Multilateral Environmental Treaties

1971 Wetlands Treaty	Protects designated wetlands from encroachment, particularly those important for migratory birds.
1972 World Heritage Treaty	Protects cultural and natural heritage sites of "outstanding historical value".
1972 Stockholm Declaration on the Human Environment	First global statement of environmental principles
1972 Ocean Dumping Convention	Controls marine pollution
1973 Endangered Species Convention	Limits international trade in endangered species (fauna and flora), or in products made from them, through a system of import and export controls
1977 Environmental Modification Convention	Prohibits military and other hostile uses of the Environment.
1979 Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution	Reduces the risks and effects of pollution. Protocol focusing on Nitrogen Oxides was added in 1988.
1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS III)	Established a comprehensive regime for the world's oceans and seas, sets environmental standards and enforcement provisions to control marine pollution.
1985 Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone layer	Called for collaborative research and monitoring of ozone layer to protect human health and the environment.
1986 International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Convention on Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident	Designed to minimize consequences of nuclear accidents.
1987 Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer	and the subsequent amendments (London 1990, and Copenhagen 1992) that have resulted in the phase-out of some of the primary ozone-depleting substances
1989 Basel Convention on Hazardous Waste Movement	Restricts international traffic in hazardous waste materials, particularly the export of toxins from rich to poor countries.
1991 Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty	Updates the 1959 Antarctic Treaty which prohibited nuclear testing and hazardous waste disposal, to enhance protection of ecosystems and endangered species, and prohibit mineral resource use except for scientific purposes.
1992 Rio Declaration on Environment and Development	Major statement of global principles for sustainable development
1992 Agenda 21	Most extensive statement of priorities relating to the environment and development, including a review/assessment of international institutions and law, and development of implementation and compliance measures
1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change	Principles and measures to combat greenhouse effect from emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases
1992 Convention on Biological Diversity	National monitoring and strategies for conserving biological diversity in all ecosystems
1992 Authoritative Statement of Principles for Global Consensus on the Management, Conservation and Sustainable Development for all types of Forests	Principles encouraging the sustainable development of forests, reforestation, and reduction of pollutants, especially acid rain.
1997 Kyoto Protocol to the Framework Convention on Climate Change	Sets quantitative reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

However, several collective action problems beset the treaty making process, including the 'free rider' problem, the 'slowest boat' problem, and 'the lowest common denominator' problem. With respect to the free rider problem, as noted in unit 2 most international treaties specify an 'effective date' and/or a certain number of ratifications/accessions for the treaty to come into effect. This is to ensure reciprocity and to avoid the free rider problem where states that initially ratify the treaty shoulder a disproportionate share of the burden. The slowest boat problem refers to the amount of time it takes for a treaty to come into effect. The requirement of ratifications creates a time lag that delays the implementation of international agreements. For example, the third UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS III) took nine years to negotiate (1973-1982) and finally came into effect in 1994, twelve years after its adoption, when the required 60th ratification instrument was deposited. A study by the UN Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) has shown that this phenomenon has tended to postpone the effective date of treaties from between two to twelve years after reaching a formal agreement. The average is five years. Because of these problems, obtaining multilateral agreements to protect the environment sometimes has to be the least ambitious program or the minimum standard (lowest common denominator). Thus, where a multilateral agreement requires the consent of all the major parties involved, collective action to deal with the issue may sometimes be limited to those measures acceptable to the least enthusiastic party. This creates significant problems in international environmental management since the minimum standard that is often a compromise to obtain agreement may not be adequate to deal with the problem.

Various attempts have been made to deal with these problems. One method is the framework-protocol approach to make binding rules for the environment. This approach was first developed in the context of the problem of ozone depletion, and entails the following steps. First, gain acceptance for a general set of principles (the 1985 Vienna Convention); then address the substance of the problem by breaking it down into smaller issues phrased as targets and goals (the 1987 Montreal Protocol). These targets and goals are subject to revision or tightening as conditions change (the London and Copenhagen Amendments of 1990 and 1992), thus obviating the need to renegotiate and ratify a new treaty. The framework-protocol approach stands in contrast to the comprehensive approach that attempts to address all aspects of a given problem in a single package – as in the case of UNCLOS III, which, as noted above, took 14 years to come into effect. The 'framework-protocol' approach was also employed to address the problem of climate change.

Selective incentives may also be used to induce parties to sign an environmental agreement. The Montreal Protocol for example, has provisions that allow developing countries to postpone implementation of certain treaty provisions for 10 years. Another method is through the creation of differential obligations (based on the principle of 'common but differentiated obligations') where treaty obligations are differentiated according to the circumstances of the parties. Various environmental treaties such as the Montreal Protocol, and the conventions on endangered species, climate change, and on transboundary pollution, established trust funds to finance joint programs where contributions to the fund are weighted -- richer countries contribute proportionally more than poorer ones. Another option is regionalization where instead of attempting to obtain a global agreement the focus is on a particular group of countries in a particular area. The premise here is that agreement is more likely to be achieved at the regional level where states have similar interests than at the global level. Examples of this include the various regional seas treaties signed under the auspices of UNEP such as the 1976 Barcelona Convention for the Protection of the Mediterranean Sea. A different method is to create and enforce rules through the medium of international institutions, discussed below.

The Multilateral Institutional Framework for Environmental Cooperation

The institutional framework for sustainable development cooperation internationally is centered on the United Nations system, and includes regional organizations as well as a global network of international non-governmental organizations. As noted in unit 6, International institutions come in a variety of forms ranging from formal intergovernmental organizations such as UNEP to less formal institutional arrangements known as 'regimes' such as the regime for the oceans institutionalized via UNCLOS III.

Institutions are themselves an important source of rules to guide the conduct of states. Institutions derive this authority from their constituent treaties, and/or indirectly through the elaboration of standards that give effect to the more general framework provided by a treaty. An example is the World Bank, which plays a prominent role in financing sustainable development programs. Other institutions facilitate the creation of rules by providing a forum for the negotiation of multilateral treaties – such as the UNGA's role in the creation of numerous agreements on the environment.

Institutions gather, analyze and disseminate information. Inter-governmental organizations such as UNEP, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), for example, have technical expertise and information technologies at their disposal that may not be available to individual states. In addition, the development and enforcement of environmental standards depend on reliable scientific data. Institutions also play an important role in monitoring compliance with rules and regulations. These monitoring provisions can involve the development of specific regulations; receiving reports on treaty implementation; facilitating independent monitoring and inspection and acting as a forum for reviewing the performance of individual states or the negotiation of measures and regulations; a review process to monitor compliance, and a dispute settlement process. Some institutions have extensive monitoring powers within their areas of jurisdiction. For example, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the organizational core of the nuclear non-proliferation regime, has extensive powers to monitor compliance with established standards for the use of nuclear energy. 5

Information gathering and monitoring play an important role in reducing uncertainty -- one of the greatest impediments to international cooperation in the absence of centralized enforcement. Two methods of institutional supervision of international agreements are most frequently used. The first is treaty-based: specific treaties provide for periodic reviews and meetings of the parties, with institutional continuity provided by a permanent secretariat. Examples of this method include the UNEP regional seas conventions, the convention on endangered species, and the climate change convention. The second is non-treaty based: a formal commission is created within the UN system in which member states are represented, as, for example, the UN Commission for Sustainable Development (CSD). Although non-treaty based methods of institutional supervision have existed within the UN system in other issue-areas since 1946, the creation of the CSD in 1992 was a first for the environment. 6

Institutions also provide financial assistance and capacity-building services in the implementation of sustainable development programs, particularly in developing countries. Institutions play an important role in raising awareness of sustainability issues and in agenda setting. Institutions are also important media in international socialization, an important process in the reproduction of patterns of behavior. For example, through processes of 'collective legitimization' institutions enable states to make judgments about the appropriateness or otherwise of specific types of conduct, and thus to exercise a form of community supervision. By providing incentives, resources, information and monitoring, institutions lower transaction costs, and thus help transform the way states define their interests. They also play a key role in transnational coalition-building -- linking experts with specialized knowledge of a given issue located within the international organization with those within governments and NGOs to create 'epistemic communities' who play key roles in transforming the way leaders of states understand environmental problems. A good example in this regard is the role of epistemic communities in the evolution of the ozone conventions. 7

Climate Change

Global efforts to address climate change have occurred within the framework of the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. Together these agreements established broad principles (framework convention) and concrete measures (protocol) to combat climate change. These measures are grouped into climate change 'mitigation' and 'adaptation'.

Climate Change Mitigation

Climate Change Mitigation involves human interventions to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases by sources or enhance their removal from the atmosphere by 'sinks'. There are six main sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, with carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N20) as the most important. These gases are by-products of anthropogenic development processes associated with industry, agriculture, commerce, energy production, household use, etc). A 'sink' refers to forests, vegetation or soils that can reabsorb CO2.

Table 2: The major types/sources of GHG Covered by the UNFCCC & Kyoto Protocol
Gas	Source	Share of global emissions in 2004
Carbon dioxide (CO2)	1. Consumption of energy from burning fossil fuels 2. Deforestation	76,7%, with 56.6% from fossil fuel use
Methane (CH4)	1. Agricultural activities 2. Energy production 3. Waste	14.3%
Nitrous oxide (N20)	Agricultural activities	7.9%
Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) Perfluorocarbons (PFCs)	Used as replacements for ozone-depleting substances	1.1%
Sulphur hexafluoride (SF6)	Used in some industrial processes and in electric equipment

Carbon dioxide is the largest contributing gas to the greenhouse effect. In the 200 years since 1800, levels have risen by over 30%. Since levels of greenhouse gases are currently rising even more steeply, leading to the most dramatic change in the atmosphere's composition in at least 650,000 years, international action on mitigation is urgently required. 8

Climate Change Adaptation

Climate Change Adaptation entails measures to address the impacts or effects of climate change. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) the world's most authoritative source on Climate Change, these impacts will result from changes in the earth's geophysical, biological and social systems. The impacts and risks associated with these changes are real and are already happening in many systems and sectors essential for human livelihood, including water resources, food security, coastal zones and health.

Climate Change impacts highlighted by the IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report (2007) include 9 :

· Worldwide, approximately 20-30% of plant and animal species are likely to be at increased risk of extinction if increases in global average temperature exceed 1.5-2.5°C;

· Widespread melting of glaciers and snow cover will reduce melt water from major mountain ranges (e.g. Hindu Kush, Himalaya, Andes), where more than one billion people currently live;

· In 2008 alone, more than 20 million people were displaced by sudden climate-related disasters. An estimated 200 million people could be displaced as a result of climate impacts by 2050;

· Climate change currently contributes to the global burden of disease and premature deaths. Adverse health impacts will be greatest in low-income countries, including from heat stroke, malaria, dengue and diarrhoea.

Although climate change impacts will be worldwide and affect all nations and peoples in different ways and to varying degrees, the IPCC's 4th Assessment Report notes that people in poorer developing nations are more vulnerable to and less able to cope with 'key' harmful impacts. These include:

· Intense droughts and scarcity of freshwater water supplies,

· Sea level rise,

· Extreme weather events (cyclones, changes in precipitation, heat waves, etc)

The most vulnerable regions include Africa and the Middle East where droughts and acute water shortages are expected to worsen; South Asia where extreme weather events are expected to intensify; and the so-called Small Island Developing States (SIDS) some of which are already experiencing land loss due to rising sea levels. The plight of these SIDS has sparked debates regarding the rights of 'environmental refugees', 'climate refugees' and the 'right to relocation.'

The UNFCC and the Kyoto Protocol

The UNFCC (1992) and the Kyoto Protocol (1997) are the two treaties created to address climate change mitigation and adaptation. The UNFCCC was adopted in 1992 and entered into force in 1994. There were 195 Parties to the Convention in 2013. 10 The Convention divides state parties into three main groups according to differing commitments.

Annex I

Annex I Parties include the wealthy industrialized countries that were members of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) in 1992, plus countries with 'economies in transition' (the EIT Parties), including the Russian Federation, the Baltic States, and several Central and Eastern European States – 36 states (including the European Union). The GHG emissions of the 36 Annex I Parties are 63.7% of total world emissions.

Annex II

Annex II Parties consist of the OECD members of Annex I, but not the EIT Parties. They are required to provide financial resources to enable developing countries to undertake emissions reduction activities under the Convention and to help them adapt to adverse effects of climate change. In addition, they have to 'take all practicable steps' to promote the development and transfer of environmentally friendly technologies to EIT Parties and developing countries. Funding provided by Annex II Parties is channelled mostly through the Convention's financial mechanism.

Non-Annex

Non-Annex Parties are mostly developing countries. Certain groups of developing countries are recognized by the Convention as being especially vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change, including countries with low-lying coastal areas and those prone to desertification and drought. Others (such as countries that rely heavily on income from fossil fuel production and commerce) feel more vulnerable to the potential economic impacts of climate change response measures. The 49 Parties classified as least developed countries (LDCs) by the UN were given special consideration under the Convention because of their limited capacity to respond to climate change and adapt to its adverse effects. Parties are urged to take full account of the special situation of LDCs when considering funding and technology-transfer activities.

The UNFCCC (1992) sets an overall framework for international efforts to tackle the challenge of climate change. Parties to the Convention agreed to a number of commitments to address climate change:

1. To develop and periodically submit national reports containing information on the greenhouse gas emissions of that Party and the steps it has taken and plans to take to implement the Convention.

2. To put in place national programmes and measures to control emissions and to adapt to the impacts of climate change.

3. To promote the development and use of climate-friendly technologies and the sustainable management of forests and other ecosystems.

Developing countries (Non-Annex) did not make commitments to reduce or limit greenhouse gas emissions at the time when the UNFCCC was being negotiated. The Convention thus applies the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities. Industrialized countries on the other hand agreed to the following broad commitments:

1. Undertake policies and measures with the specific aim of reducing their greenhouse gas emissions.

2. Provide more frequent and more detailed national reports and must separately provide yearly reports on their national greenhouse gas emissions.

3. Promote and facilitate the transfer of climate friendly technologies to developing countries and to countries with economies in transition.

The Kyoto Protocol

The Kyoto Protocol to the UNFCCC was adopted in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997. The Protocol entered into force in 2005. There were 191 Parties to the Kyoto Protocol in 2013. The Kyoto Protocol shares the UNFCCC's ultimate objective; however, in keeping with the 'framework-protocol approach' it builds upon and enhances many of the commitments already in place under the Convention, and identifies specific targets.

The Annex I parties to the UNFCCC agreed under the Kyoto Protocol to two commitments:

1. Under the first commitment period (2008-2012) Annex I parties agreed to reduce their GHG emissions by 5% below 1990 levels by December 2012. This goal was not achieved.

2. Doha Amendment: Under the second commitment period (2013-2020), negotiated at Doha Qatar in December 2012, Annex I parties agreed to reduce their GHG emissions by 18% below 1990 levels by December 2020. At the Doha meeting, Canada announced its withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol.

The Kyoto Protocol introduced three mechanisms by which Annex I Parties could lower their costs of achieving emissions targets:

Emissions Trading ('Cap & Trade')

Parties with commitments under the Kyoto Protocol have accepted targets for limiting or reducing emissions. These targets are expressed as levels of allowed emissions, or "assigned amounts," over the commitment periods. Emissions trading, as set out in Article 17 of the Kyoto Protocol, allows countries that have emission units to spare - emissions permitted them but not 'used' - to sell this excess capacity to countries that are over their targets. Thus, a new commodity was created in the form of emission reductions or removals. Since carbon dioxide is the principal greenhouse gas, people speak simply of trading in carbon. Carbon is now tracked and traded like any other commodity, in what is known as the 'carbon market'.

Clean Development Mechanism

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), defined in Article 12 of the Protocol, allows a country with an emission-reduction or emission-limitation commitment to implement an emission-reduction project in developing countries. Such projects can earn saleable Certified Emission Reduction (CER) credits, each equivalent to one tonne of CO2, which are counted towards meeting Kyoto targets. The mechanism is the first global, environmental investment and credit scheme of its kind, providing a standardized emissions 'offset' instrument, CERs. A CDM project activity might involve, for example, a rural electrification project using solar panels or the installation of more energy-efficient boilers. The mechanism is designed to stimulate sustainable development and emission reductions, while giving industrialized countries some flexibility in how they meet their emission reduction or limitation targets.

Joint Implementation

Article 6 of the Kyoto Protocol, allows a country with an emission reduction or limitation commitment to earn Emission Reduction Units (ERUs) from an emission-reduction or emission removal project in another country with a commitment, each equivalent to one tonne of CO2, which can be counted towards meeting its Kyoto target. Joint implementation offers Parties a flexible and cost-efficient means of fulfilling a part of their Kyoto commitments, while the host Party benefits from foreign investment and technology transfer. Projects funded under Joint Implementation are usually in EIT countries in Eastern Europe.

REDD (Reduction Emission from Deforestation and forest Degradation)

The UNFCC introduced a 'low cost' mitigation mechanism in 2007, REDD, which aims at slowing down the rate at which remaining tropical forests are degraded and deforested in developing countries. REDD is designed to remove GHG from the atmosphere by 'sinks' (forests, vegetation and soils that absorb C02). The REDD mitigation potential can be defined as the foreseen reduction in greenhouse gas emissions through the slowdown or halt of deforestation. The main concern for an efficient REDD mechanism is the accurate estimation of the avoided carbon reduction in tropical forests.

Deforestation is responsible for about 17% of global anthropogenic CO2 emissions. The loss of forests amounts to more than 13 million hectares per year in tropical countries. Globally forest loss is dominated by deforestation occurring in Latin America. This accounts for around 60% of the global tropical forest area loss, mainly localized in Brazil (48% of the total). Deforestation in Asia and Africa accounted globally for 30% and 5%, respectively over the same period 1990-2010. Indonesia alone totals 13% of global forest loss. Anthropogenic land-use changes alter the balance between the CO2 released into the atmosphere and that absorbed by the ecosystem. The corresponding loss of carbon from land occurs with a flow that is very difficult to estimate

Adaptation Measures under the UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol

Adaptation is particularly important to developing countries because of the 'triple inequality' of climate change ¬¬¬– inequality in historical responsibility for climate change, where the North has been responsible for a far greater proportion of GHG emissions than the South; inequality in vulnerability to climate change impacts; and inequality in the ability to cope with and manage those impacts. 11

The UNFCCC commits all Parties to formulate, implement, publish and update adaptation measures, as well as to cooperate on adaptation. It provides for a variety of support mechanisms for adaptation implementation in developing countries, including measures on:

· The provision of funding

· Insurance and technology transfer

· Scientific and technical assistance for all Parties to enhance their knowledge base

· Adaptation Fund: established to finance concrete adaptation projects and programmes in developing countries that are Parties to the Kyoto Protocol. It is to be financed with a share of proceeds from clean development mechanism (CDM) project activities and funds from other sources. The share of proceeds amounts to 2% of CERs issued for a CDM project activity. The Adaptation Fund is managed by the Adaptation Fund Board (AFB) with the Global Environment Facility (GEF) providing secretariat services to the Board, and the World Bank serving as the trustee of the Adaptation Fund. The AFB is composed of 16 members and 16 alternates and it meets at least twice a year.

· At a meeting in Cancun Mexico in 2010, parties agreed to the Cancun Adaptation Framework and the Green Climate Fund. The Cancun Adaptation Framework seeks to enhance action on adaptation by reducing vulnerability and build resilience in developing countries. The Green Climate Fund will scale up the provision of long-term financing for developing countries. The fund will support projects, programmes, policies and other activities in developing country Parties using thematic funding windows.

Biological Diversity

Biological diversity – or biodiversity – is the term given to the variety of life on Earth and the natural patterns it forms. The biodiversity we see today is the fruit of billions of years of evolution, shaped by natural processes and, increasingly, by the influence of humans. It forms the web of life of which we are an integral part and upon which we so fully depend.

Biological diversity includes the wide variety of plants, animals and microorganisms. So far, about 1.75 million species have been identified, mostly small creatures such as insects. Scientists estimate that there are actually about 13 million species, though estimates range from three to 100 million. Biodiversity also includes genetic differences within each species – for example, between varieties of crops and breeds of livestock. Chromosomes, genes, and DNA– the building blocks of life – determine the uniqueness of each individual and each species. Yet another aspect of biodiversity is the variety of ecosystems and ecosystem services. An ecosystem is a community of animals (including humans) and plants interacting with one another and with their physical environment, such as those that occur in deserts, forests, wetlands, mountains, lakes, rivers, and agricultural landscapes. Ecosystem services play a part in regulating the chemistry of our atmosphere and water supply. Here, biodiversity is directly involved in such processes as water purification, recycling nutrients and providing fertile soils. Experiments with controlled environments have shown that humans cannot easily build ecosystems to support human needs.

Species Diversity & 'Latitudinal Gradients'

Biodiversity is not evenly distributed; rather it varies greatly across the globe as well as within regions. Among other factors, the diversity of all living things depends on temperature, precipitation, altitude, soils, topography and the presence of other species. Biodiversity is generally higher in the tropics than temperate zones and much lower in the polar regions. Generally, biodiversity increases as we move from the poles (higher latitudes) to the tropics (lower latitudes). Thus, places at lower latitudes have more species than localities at higher latitudes. This is often referred to as the latitudinal gradient in species diversity. While there are several reasons for this, the most important is the higher mean temperature at the equator compared to that of the poles. This general rule only applies to terrestrial biodiversity (i.e. on the earth's surface). It does not necessarily apply to biodiversity in the earth's oceans and seas (marine or aquatic biodiversity).

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)

The CBD was opened for signature in June 1992 at the UN Conference on Environment and Development (the Rio "Earth Summit"). By 2013, 193 states were parties to the CBD. The CBD has three main objectives (article 1):

1. The conservation of biological diversity;

2. The sustainable use of its components; and

3. The fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources, including by appropriate access to genetic resources and by appropriate transfer of relevant technologies, taking into account all rights over those resources and to technologies, and by appropriate funding

4. In addition, the CBD recognizes Traditional Knowledge (Article 8) as a key element in biodiversity and its conservation. Article 8 states: "Each contracting Party shall … respect, preserve and maintain knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous and local communities embodying traditional lifestyles relevant for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity … and encourage the equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the utilization of such knowledge innovations and practices".

Key Provisions of the CBD

The CBD has several key provisions two of which have generated some controversy. The first is article 3 that affirms states' sovereign rights over the natural resources and biodiversity within their territory and affirms the principle of state responsibility. By placing biodiversity under the territorial sovereignty of states, the CBD rejects the notion that biodiversity is, or should be, part of humanity's Common Heritage. In part, this provision was included at the insistence of developing countries. As indicated by the latitudinal gradient, the bulk of the world's biological diversity is in the tropical and sub-tropical regions, where the majority of developing countries are located. These developing countries were determined to retain control over the biodiversity located within their territories, particularly in the face of the technological and financial dominance of developed countries. Article 15 dealing with access to genetic resources, and article 16 on biotechnology, technology transfer and intellectual property, have also generated debate particularly since corporations in the developed countries, which protect that technology with patents and other forms of intellectual property, own the bulk of the world's biotechnology. A key issue of debate then, concerns the 'fair and equitable' sharing of the benefits of genetic resources between developing countries, where the bulk of these genetic resources are located, and developed countries that have the technology to exploit and profit from these genetic resources. 12 This issue was taken up in the 2010 Nagoya Protocol (discussed below)

The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity is an international treaty governing the movements of living modified organisms (LMOs) resulting from modern biotechnology from one country to another. It was adopted in January 2000 as a supplementary agreement to the Convention on Biological Diversity, and entered into force in September 2003. In accordance with the precautionary principle, the objective of this Protocol is to ensure an adequate level of safety in the transfer, handling and use of LMOs that may adversely affect the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, taking also into account risks to human health, and specifically focusing on transboundary movements.

The Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity aims at sharing the benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources in a fair and equitable way. This is to be accomplished by appropriate access to genetic resources and by appropriate transfer of relevant technologies, taking into account all rights over those resources and to technologies, and by appropriate funding, thereby contributing to the conservation of biological diversity and the sustainable use of its components. It was adopted in October 2010 in Nagoya, Japan.