Untitled

• Global Environmental Protection (GEP) ensures environmental preservation for intergenerational equity, intragenerational equity, and biological diversity.
• Lack of full scientific certainty should not delay cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation where there are threats of serious or irreversible change, as reflected in the precautionary principle.

Timeline of Environmental Protection Efforts

• 1972 Stockholm Declaration: The first international document recognizing the right to a healthy environment through 26 principles. It played a significant role in the development of International Environmental Law (IEL).
• The Stockholm Declaration established the Principle of Cooperation, recognizing that countries should unite to meet global environmental challenges, crucial for IEL development.
• The UN General Assembly created the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) in Stockholm, now the central body for environmental affairs.
• 1983: The UN created the World Commission on Environment and Development, known as the Brundtland Commission, leading to the 'Our Common Future' report (1987).
• Around 1983, global environmental problems manifested, including ozone layer depletion, risks to biological diversity, and climate change threats.
• 1987: The Montreal Protocol was signed to combat ozone layer depletion, and the ozone layer may recover by 2050 because of its success.
• 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro: Two conventions (Convention on Biological Diversity and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)) were presented for governments to sign.
• The Rio Declaration reaffirmed the Stockholm Declaration and the Agenda 21 action program, emphasizing sustainable development amid evidence that human activities caused major environmental threats.
• 1994 Marrakech Agreement: The first economic treaty recognizing sustainable development and environmental protection goals, which created the World Trade Organisation.
• The 1995 Convention on Climate Change led to annual Conference of the Parties (COP) meetings, including the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the first international agreement setting legally binding obligations for developed countries.
• 2000: 189 countries adopted the Millennium Declaration, strengthening sustainable development's importance with a focus on poverty and human rights.
• 2002: Representatives from 190 countries at the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg adopted the Declaration on Sustainable Development.
• 2012: The UN organized the third Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio + 20), uniting 192 Member States, private sector companies, NGOs, and other organizations, resulting in "The Future We Want," which renewed states' sustainable development commitments.
• The Kyoto Protocol evolved into the Paris Agreement (2016), signatories committed to preventing the planet's temperature from rising by 2°C, which was ratified across the world.
• In Latin America, Advisory Opinion 23 (2017) of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights recognized a healthy environment as fundamental to human existence.
• Human consumption, development, globalization, and free trade have increased the need for GEP, because economic growth increases energy-intensive, non-renewable resources produce waste and pollution and corporations sacrificing potential protection in return for revenue.
• In 2014 The Guardian reported that the number of wild animals on Earth had halved in the previous 40 years.
• It also stated that the average global rate of consumption would need 1.5 Earths to sustain it and that the fastest decline was in freshwater ecosystems, where numbers have decreased 75% since 1970.
• Environmental disaster case study: The Exxon Valdez oil tanker hit a reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska, in March 1989.
• About 40 million litres of crude oil were spilled, killing as many as 500,000 seabirds and devastating fish and otter populations.

Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD)

• A key aim of GEP is to achieve 'sustainable development', involving social progress, economic development and climate protection.
• Biodiversity: The diversity of life (ecosystems, species, genes) is essential for ecosystem health, food security, and natural processes. It is relevant to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
• Intergenerational equity ensures future generations have access to the same resources and opportunities, which is ensures sustainability and fairness across generations. It is relevant to Rio Declaration on Environment and Development..
• Intragenerational equity promotes fair distribution of resources and opportunities within the current generation (particularly across different social and economic groups), promotes social justice and reduces inequality in the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
• Precautionary principle protects against potential environmental and health risks, by enacting that lack of scientific certainty should not delay preventive measures if an action could cause harm. It is relevant to the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development.

Responses to GEP

• The UN Conference on the Human Environment' was the first international gathering to consider the natural environment, aiming for a common outlook and principles to guide human environment preservation.
• It produced the Stockholm Declaration (non-binding, moral guidance) and created the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
• The 1992 Rio Conference (Earth Summit) addressed global threats like ozone depletion, greenhouse gas emissions, and threatened species.
• 5 Key documents were created: 1. Rio Declaration - general guidelines, precautionary principle, sustainable development agenda. 2. practical strategies. 3. Forest principles - protection of rainforests. 4. UN Convention on biological diversity 5. United Nations Framework on the Convention of Climate Change (UNFCCC) -agreement to reduce emissions and convention that led to hard law

International legal instruments

• They are documents setting out commitments or obligations of states, including declarations, treaties, agreements, conventions, and protocols, like the Kyoto Protocol, Vienna Convention, and Paris Agreement.
• 'Soft law' consists of non-binding guidelines for minimum behavior standards, often broad in focus, and where nation states must interpret and apply guidelines to their citizens eg declarations and Agreements.
• 'Hard law' are binding decisions as an agreement that will set targets for action which is more enforceable than soft law andaims to achieve goals/action in a specific time frame eg Protocols and Treaties.
• State sovereignty: The authority of an independent state to govern itself (e.g., making and applying laws), and enacting its own domestic laws to protect the environment, bring global awareness to environmental threats, and sign international agreements.
• United Nations primary aim: to maintain international peace and security and encourage cooperation between nations.
• The UN is made up of two main bodies - the General Assembly, the main forum where all member nations can attend conferences UN bodies and agreements, and the Security Council, which has the primary responsibility for maintaining peace, includes 15 member nations - 5 permanent (USA, UK, France, China, Russia) and 10 non-permanent members who serve 2 years.
• The UNEP is the principal environmental organization of the UN; the main function is to conduct regular reviews of the global environment, provide advice to the UN and develop international environmental law.
• IPCC (the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) addresses issues about the Ozone layer relating to climate change, assesses the science behind climate change, was established in 1988 and its current role is assess the impacts of CC, future risks and options for mitigation with 195 member states.
• UNDP (the United Nations Development Programme) works in about 170 countries and territories, helping to eradicate poverty, reduce inequalities and exclusion and build resilience so countries can sustain progress, and plays a critical role in helping countries achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Intergovernmental organizations are organizations whose members are nation states, such as the UN, UNEP and IPCC.