The Paris Agreement and its adequacy in addressing climate change

Details

Supervisors

Gautier, Philippe

Faculty

Faculté de droit et de criminologie

Degree label

Master [120] en droit

Abstract

Global warming is currently one of the most urgent threats to human kind. This thesis explores the legal architecture of the Paris Agreement, its context and the potentials consequences for society to implement its goal. Part I is an explanation of climate change, its linear relation with GHG emissions, as well as many of its potentially devasting consequences. We then analyse the international legal context before the Paris Agreement: first the UNFCCC, the scheme it laid out and the substantive obligations defined later on by the successive COP; later the Kyoto Protocol and its top-down, binding approach which ultimately, amongst other reasons, led to insufficient States’ participation. In Part II, we explore in depth the Paris Agreement, first explaining the international negotiations leading up to COP21 in Paris, and its crucial consequences: containing global warming between 1.5 and 2 °C; another concept of differentiation; and a hybrid between a bottom-up and a top-down approach. There is also a legal analysis of the Paris Agreement’s content. We examine the legally binding character of the instrument, its scope and general provisions, its approach to differentiation, mitigation, adaptation and loss and damages, as well as the question of transparency and compliance mechanisms. We finally outline some shortcomings about the Agreement’s feasibility, and the fact it was nonetheless a considerable diplomatic and political success. Part III is devoted to understanding how our modern society can adapt to the goal of the Paris Agreement. We first observe in Chapter I the role courts and tribunals could and already play in the matter, underscoring the symbolic scope and impact of jurisprudence, then questioning the adequacy of international courts in adjudicating climate change. Domestic jurisdictions seem better equipped for this issue in particular with the formidable wave of domestic climate change litigation going on in many nations of the world. Additionally, non-State actors and civil society have a pivotal role to play in safeguarding the subsidence of future generations. Subnational governments and city authorities; individuals and platforms of empowered citizens; companies and businesses: all must act hand in hand, as it is crystal-clear that much more effort is required to reduce CO2 emissions. To conclude we evoke general implications for our conceptions of the environment, as we could set a new vision for nature, our environment and its rights.