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188 F.SimlingerandB.Mayer
but of its reliance on fossil fuels as an economicmotor, i.e. frommany activities.
Secondly, damages from climate change results not from the conduct of a single
state but from the concomitant conduct ofmultiple states,with the resulting harm
notconfinedtoasinglestatebutaffectingvirtuallyallstates.Thirdlyandrelatedly,the
harmresultsnot fromanyparticular activity, but fromanaccumulationofactivities
overdecades.
For thesereasons, inthe1990s, theInternationalLawCommissionexcludedphe-
nomena such as creepingpollution andpollutionderiving fromordinary economic
activities from itswork on theArticles on the Prevention of TransboundaryHarm
fromHazardousActivities (Rao2000:9). The International LawCommission con-
sidered these situations toocomplex, andpossibly toopolitically sensitive, tomake
statementsabouttheir legalnature.AlthoughtheArticlesarenotbindingassuchand
donot reflectexistingcustomary international lawin their entirety, this is indicative
of thedifficultyofapplying theno-harmprinciple tonewsituations.
The multiplicity of states contributing to climate change and impacted by its
consequencesat leastcomplicates theapplicationoftheno-harmrule.Scholarshave
questioned the applicability of the no-harmprinciple to circumstanceswhere harm
is caused not directly by a single source, but by multiple diffuse sources over a
long period of time, which accumulate and result in harm (Zahar 2014; Okawa
2010:307;Scovazzi2001:61).Mostcasesbeforetheinternationalcourtsandtribunals
are decided over situations where a single activity caused harm to another state.
Environmentalharmaccruingbecauseoftheconductofmultiplestateswasdiscussed
inthepleadingsbeforetheICJinonecase.IntheirsubmissionsontheLegalityof the
ThreatorUseofNuclearWeapons, somestates raisedconcernswith thepossibility
that the repeateduseofnuclearweaponsover a relatively short spanof timewould
createa“nuclearwinter”—acataclysmicupheavaloftheclimatesystemwhichcould
wipe outmost of life on our planet (Mexico 1995, para 65; Egypt 1995, para 32;
Ecuador, paraD).Whenmentioning that the damages caused by nuclearweapons
couldnot“becontained ineitherspaceor time”andhad“thepotential todestroyall
civilizationandtheentireecosystemof theplanet,” (Legalityof theThreatorUseof
NuclearWeapons, para. 35) the International Court of Justicemade no distinction
betweenmediateddamagesanddamagescausedbycumulativecausationbutimplied
that the no-harmprinciple applied equally to both (see alsoDissentingOpinion of
JudgeWeeramantry:456–458;Mayer2015:8).
If there is indeedanobligationforstatesnot tocause transboundaryenvironmen-
tal harms through greenhouse gas emissions, itsmodalities remain ill-defined (see
alsoMayer 2016b, 2018a). In particular, the scope of the no-harmprinciple is ill-
determined. Ingeneral, theduty toprevent significant harmexistswhenever a state
hasor shouldhavebeenable to foresee the riskof harm.Unfortunately, there is no
interpretationofthesemodalitiesof theno-harmprinciplebytheInternationalCourt
of Justiceor sufficientclarification through theworkof the InternationalLawCom-
mission.However, it appears possible to assume that a statemust havehad at least
somescientifichintsoftheimpactsofgreenhousegasemissions.Thus, thehistorical
failureofastate topreventactivitiesgeneratingexcessivegreenhousegasemissions
does not constitute a breach of the no-harm rule until at least some scientific evi-
Loss and Damage from Climate Change
Concepts, Methods and Policy Options
- Titel
- Loss and Damage from Climate Change
- Untertitel
- Concepts, Methods and Policy Options
- Autoren
- Reinhard Mechler
- Laurens M. Bouwer
- Thomas Schinko
- Swenja Surminski
- JoAnne Linnerooth-Bayer
- Verlag
- Springer Open
- Datum
- 2019
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- CC BY 4.0
- ISBN
- 978-3-319-72026-5
- Abmessungen
- 16.0 x 24.0 cm
- Seiten
- 580
- Schlagwörter
- Environment, Climate change, Environmental law, Environmental policy, Risk management
- Kategorien
- International
- Naturwissenschaften Umwelt und Klima