International Law and Climate Change

Tim Stephens

Of all areas of law relevant to and affected by climate change it is public international law that has historically been the most important. This is seen primarily in the adoption of the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and subsequent treaties under this framework, most notably the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change. Collectively we can refer to this area of international law as the ‘climate regime’ or ‘international climate law’.

This chapter considers how the climate regime is essential for addressing climate change, but is also beset by fundamental limitations, several of which are a product of the nature of the international legal order. The climate change regime is not the only field of international law relevant to climate change. Indeed, one of the key lessons of climate change is that it touches upon multiple areas of international law, especially those dealing with other environmental issues such as the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity.

The chapter begins with an overview of the structure and organising principles underlying international law and its relevance for Australian law, before turning to assess the content of the international climate regime and other complementary rules and principles of international law. The chapter then considers future potential trajectories for this area of the law and highlights some key issues that need to be addressed to effectively respond to the climate crisis.