From Rio to Paris: a view from international environmental law | Article

Ross Barrantes

Environmental Lawyer

First we’ll talk to you about International environmental law I’d like to talk to you a little bit about environmental law and what is environmental law? Many people ask us about this, but this is the basis of the fight for a paradigm shift in which we protect a healthy environment, because everything is born from this autonomous foundation of Law.

Environmental law is defined as “a set of legal norms that regulate human behavior and can appropriately influence the interaction processes occurring between the systems of living organisms and the systems of their environment.creating effects that are expected to significantly alter the conditions of existence of the specified organisms.”

For this reason, Environmental Law, regulates human behavior in relation to environmental impact healthy to try to achieve sustainable development.

We know that the fight against climate change is international coordination, so it defines the dynamics of public international law, which when combined with its principles, like environmental law, which also has principles, is when they come together and create international environmental regulation, known in law as “International Environmental Law”, which is defined as follows.

“An area of ​​law whose purpose is to regulate relations between subjects of public international law, meaning primarily States and international organizations to ensure the protection of nature and a healthy environment, and to combat pollution and damage to the ecosystem.”

There are two first major world environmental conferences that established the basic principles of environmental law, as well as international environmental law, originally convened United Nations. The first took place in Stockholm under the name United Nations Conference on the Human Environmentin 1972 the second took place in Rio de Janeirounder the heading UN Summit on Environment and Sustainable Development In 1992, a very important summit called the World Summit on Sustainable Development was organized in Johannesburg in 2002.

Much has been written about the summits, Kyoto, Cop 21, but usually there are general reports and chronologies.

On this occasion I want to carry out an analysis from Rio to Paris, passing through Kyoto Protocol What a paradigm shift in the history of international environmental law occurred until we came to Paris to share with you basic environmental culture.

Declaration of Rio de Janeiro 1992

United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, entitled Earth Summit o The Rio Summit, attended by an unprecedented number of representatives.

The themes that had been formulated in Stockholm twenty years earlier were confirmed: placing people at the center of sustainability concerns and affirmation that people “have the right to healthy and productive lives in harmony with nature”

This Summit led to seven important achievements of the countries of the South and North:

To) the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, containing 27 principles;

b) Agenda 21, a plan of action to bring development and the environment into the 21st century: called Agenda 21;

V) UN Framework Convention on Climate Change;

G) Convention on Biological Diversity;

And) Commission on Sustainable Development;

F) Agreement on Negotiations for a Global Convention on Desertification; And

G) Declaration of Principles for Sustainable Forest Management.

Agenda 21 It is a non-legally binding document of programs and actions to be undertaken by the international community.

The Rio Declaration, based on an anthropocentric understanding, establishes that humans are at the center of environmental problems, echoing what was established in the Stockholm Declaration. The sovereign right of countries to exploit natural resources is reaffirmed, only this time the clarification of compliance with “environmental and development policies” is added, which corresponds to the emphasis on development that the Declaration acquired due to pressure from southern countries.

Other principles were also included for the first time, such as:

Equity between and within generations, integration of environmental variables into the development process (principle of integration), poverty eradication as an essential requirement for sustainable development, common but differentiated responsibilitiesespecially the Nordic countries’ contribution to certain environmental issues (climate change, ozone depletion, not including China-India as they were considered developing countries at the time), reducing unsustainable production and consumption practices, among other principles
The most important achievement of Rio 92 was the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which was signed by 158 countries within a few months. This convention laid the foundation on which international environmental law efforts to limit emissions were built.

Purpose of the Convention: “Stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations to avoid anthropogenic interference with the climate system. “The Nordic countries at that time, with the exception of China and India, took the lead and responsibility in combating climate change as the main causes of the problem, as they developed their economies with high-polluting models.”

The highest body of the Convention is Conference of the Parties (COP), which represents all signatory countries. The CC meets every year to study the application of the agreement and the legal instruments adopted by the signatories in previous editions.

The first CS took place in 1995 in Berlin.

COP 3, held in 1997 under the flag Kyoto Protocol. It was the first legally binding protocol to limit emissions of gases that cause global warming, but it was not signed by some of the major CO2-emitting countries, including the largest US, followed by China and India (not considered developing countries).

The following editions of the KS continued the path marked by Kyoto, right up to COP15 in Copenhagen, 2009However, this summit radically changed the way negotiations were conducted; the famous “Copenhagen Accord” was far from demonstrating the commitment that the situation required.

Milestone, Paris, 2015

After the failure of the Copenhagen Summit and the heavy blow to the Kyoto Protocol in 2012, hopes were pinned on the next major climate summit, Paris COP21 2015Following COP 20, held in Lima, Peru, it (COP 21) led to the signing of the Paris Agreement, a partially binding agreement between Kyoto and Copenhagen. This agreement, ratified by 189 states, is considered historic in international environmental law.

The Paris Agreement also made progress by including human rights language in its text, following the work of United Nations expert rapporteurs, the work of the Cortes, and the endless efforts to make ESCAP visible. Paris recognizes the link between climate change action and the rights of indigenous immigrant peoples, among others, as well as gender and intergenerational equalitymentions Mother Earth and climate justice, and also includes the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with 17 SDGs.

Having gone from International Environmental Law, from Rio 92 to Paris 2015, knowing that Kyoto marked a paradigm shift along the way to achieve COP 21 and agree on 17 SDGs, currently the coronavirus pandemic and other phenomena, climate conditions such as El Niño 2024 It opens the door to climate adaptation and shows the connections between pandemics, climate change, poverty and inequality.

COP28 will take place in Dubai from November 30 to December 12, 2023.will have to correct the climate imbalance and stop the loss of biodiversity, confirm whether the will to fight climate change remains within the framework of a regenerative ecology scheme, combat green inequality, whether the targets set are binding and whether the targets are updated in the country, in addition to consider how we are going to regional level to achieve 17 sustainable development goals access to the green climate fund for developing countries and the need to achieve climate finance in a friendly way and without so many obstacles, which will allow countries like Mexico, Peru, Colombia, etc. to achieve their climate goals in terms of adaptation and mitigation , this also opens the question: how are we going to build the damage and loss fund approved at COP 27?

Ross Barrantes
Environmental Lawyer

Profile

Lawyer, Master of Constitutional Law, University Professor, Fashion Law Specialist at Fordham Law Institute, New York Law School, and Environmental Law Specialist, Author of Consumer Rights Do You Know What You’re Eating? published by Porrúa, Director of Fashion Law Latam, the world’s leading institution in the field of environmental fashion law, active researcher on Latin America’s environmental impact – circular economy – regenerative agriculture.

Source: Aristegui Noticias

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