Obstacles to International Environmental

Cooperation – the Perspective of Law

Ole Kristian Fauchald
IAPSS World Congress 2015, April 17
My focus

• Obstacles

• Biodiversity

• Law

20.04.2015 3

Source: Steffen and others, 16 January 2015, Science

 Should we be concerned?
Which are the success
stories?
• The Ozone regime
• The UNECE air pollution
treaties
• The Ramsar Convention
• The World Heritage
Convention

Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve

20.04.2015 4
 The weakness of International Evironmental
Governance – problem solved?
• From the 1972 Stockholm Conference to Rio +20: no
agreement on a World Environment Organization
• UNEP – UN Environment Assembly: who meets, institutional
powers, location, funding, host to treaties and negotiations
• High-Level Political Forum
on Sustainable
Development

20.04.2015 5
 Fragmentation – efforts Ramsar
to coordinate Convention

World
CITES Heritage
Convention
Convention
on
Convention Biological
on Biological
Diversity
Diversity
Convention
on Migratory ITPGRFA
Species

Cartagena Nagoya International

Plant Protection
Protocol Protocol
20.04.2015 Convention 6
And it gets more complex – the «Rio Conventions»

UNFCCC

Decertification
CBD
Convention
20.04.2015 7
Differences in maturity
1. The science-policy
interface
2. Framework conventions
and protocols
3. Extent of soft law
instruments
4. Binding decisions
5. Development of follow-up
procedures – «living
instruments»
20.04.2015 8
Moving from law-making to effective
implementation
• Differences regarding «reciprocity»
– Lack of reciprocity limits options for
implementation
– Facilitative approaches
• Effectiveness of country reports
– State-dominated review institutions
– Involvement of the public
• Compliance committees vs. dispute
settlement
– Relevance of dispute settlement
20.04.2015 9
 We are moving too slowly!

The Anthropocene is emerging!

How can we speed up?

20.04.2015 10