Page - 193 - in Loss and Damage from Climate Change - Concepts, Methods and Policy Options

7 LegalResponses toClimateChange… 193 7.5 TheInternationalClimateLawRegime After thisoverviewofcustomaryinternational law, thepresentsectionturns to inter- nationalobligationsbasedonclimate treaties.Several treatieshavebeennegotiated to address climate change, in particular the UN Framework Convention on Cli- mateChange(UNFCCC1992), theKyotoProtocol(1997),andtheParisAgreement (2015).Thesetreatiesestablishaninstitutionalframeworkcomposedinparticularby aSecretariat andaConferenceof theParties.TheConferenceof theParties adopts decisionsat itsannualmeetings.Thetreatiesanddecisionsadoptedunderthemform what isoften referred toas the international climate lawregime. Incontrastwithcustomaryinternational law, theinternationalclimatelawregime isnegotiatedbystates.Morepowerfulstateshavenaturallyagreatersayinthenego- tiations.Diplomatic andfinancial pressure isoftenexercisedonweaker states.This politicaldeterminationof the internationalclimate lawregimehassignificantlyhin- deredeffortsofvulnerablenationstobringupthequestionofL&Dbecause,often,the mostpowerful states, responsible for the largest shareofgreenhousegasemissions, arealso themost influential in internationalnegotiationsonclimatechange. In the following, afirst subsection recounts theprogressivemezzovoce recogni- tion of somethingpossibly akin to “responsibility” in the international climate law regime.Asecondsubsection thendiscusses the initiationofaworkstreamdedicated tonegotiationsonL&Dover the lastdecade(seealso introductionbyMechleretal. 2018andchapterbyCalliari et al. 2018). 7.5.1 AnAmbivalentRecognitionofResponsibilities In adeclaration adopted in theCaracasSummit of theG77 in1989,most develop- ing states took a commonposition on climate change. Theydeclared that, “[s]ince developedcountriesaccountfor thebulkof theproductionandconsumptionofenvi- ronmentally damaging substances, they should bear themain responsibility in the search for long-term remedies for global environmental protection” (CaracasDec- laration, paras. II-34). Two years later, Small IslandDeveloping States submitted a proposal for an instrument to address “loss anddamage” associatedwith climate changeby“compensat[ing] themost vulnerable small island and low-lying coastal developing countries for loss and damage resulting from sea level rise” (Vanuatu 1991:2). Yet, no provision recognising the “main responsibility” of developed states or their obligation to “compensate” the most vulnerable nations was inserted in the final draft of the UNFCCC, adopted at the Earth Summit, in Rio de Janeiro, in June1992.Rather, this treatyfocusedonforward-lookingefforts tomitigateclimate change inorder to“achieve…stabilizationofgreenhousegasconcentrations in the atmosphereata level thatwouldpreventdangerousanthropogenic interferencewith the climate system” (UNFCCC, art. 2). Nevertheless, since negotiations had been pursuedon thebasisof consensus, thepositionofdeveloping stateshadbeen taken