Global Warming and Climate Change: A Critique on International Law and Policy

Global warming and climate change, a multidisciplinary topic is a matter of
international concern. There are some international environmental treaties related
to global warming and climate change. The most significant international agreement
in this area is - UNFCCC - the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change adopted at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 and ratified by 195 countries. It
mainly deals with greenhouse gases emissions mitigation, adaptation and finance
starting in the year 2020. The Kyoto Protocol which extends the 1992 UNFCC
mandates State Parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions: its two basic premises
are - global warming exists, and human-made CO2 emissions caused global
warming. The Kyoto Protocol came into force in 2005 and each COP has served as
the ‘meeting of parties’ to Kyoto Protocol such as COP13 (Bali, 2007), COP15
(Copenhagen, 2009), COP16 (Cancun, 2010), COP17 (Durban, 2011), COP18
(Doha, 2012), COP19 (Warsaw, 2013), COP21 and (Paris, 2015).There are other
international legal instruments such as 1979 Geneva Convention on Long-Range
Trans-boundary Air Pollution. Against this backdrop, this paper will critically
examine the existing international legal regime (treaties, conventions, agreements,
etc.) on global warming and climate change.
JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY URBAN AFFAIRS (2017) 1(3), 38-42.
https://doi.org/10.25034/ijcua.2018.3677
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