Page - 179 - in Loss and Damage from Climate Change - Concepts, Methods and Policy Options

Chapter7 LegalResponses toClimateChange InducedLossandDamage FlorentinaSimlingerandBenoitMayer Abstract Legal issues are central to ongoing debates on Loss andDamage asso- ciatedwith climate change impacts and risks (L&D). These debates shed light, in particular,ontheremedialobligationsofactorsmostresponsibleforcausingclimate changetowardsthosemostaffectedbyitsadverseimpacts.Theaimofthischapter is totakestockof thelegal literatureonthetopic, to identifypotential legalapproaches toL&D,identifychallengesandtoexplorepossibledirectionsforfurtherresearch.It looks at the feasibilityofprivate andadministrative climate change litigationwhile providing examples fromaround theworld. Subsequently,we explore howhuman rights issues have been applied in international law to address L&D. The discus- sion particularly addresses the question whether the no-harm rule can be applied to climate change andwould in fact trigger legal responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions. In addition,we examine relevant legal actionswith relevance for L&D taken under theUNFCCC and theWarsaw InternationalMechanism onLoss and Damage. The chapter concludeswith a synopsis of the various legal responses to L&Dhighlighting theirpremises, specificchallengesandproposed remedies. Keywords Climatechange litigation ·Climate regime ·No-harmrule LossandDamage 7.1 IntroductionandPreliminaryNotes Legal issuesarecentral to theongoingdebateonLossandDamageassociatedwith climate change impacts (L&D).ThesedebatesonL&Dshed light, inparticular, on the remedial obligations of the actorsmost responsible for causing climate change F.Simlinger (B) DepartmentofEuropean, International andComparativeLaw, UniversityofVienna,Vienna,Austria e-mail: f.simlinger@outlook.com B.Mayer FacultyofLaw,TheChineseUniversityofHongKong,HongKong,China e-mail: bmayer@cuhk.edu.hk ©TheAuthor(s)2019 R.Mechler et al. (eds.),LossandDamage fromClimateChange,ClimateRisk Management,PolicyandGovernance,https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72026-5_7 179