From Justice to Participation: The Paris Agreement's Pragmatic Approach to Differentiation

• Author: Patrícia G. Ferreira
• Pages: 25-47

25

From Justice to Participation:

The Paris Agreement’s

Pragmatic Approach

to Differentiation

Patrícia G . Ferreira

Introduction ...................................................................................................25

I. e Distinguishable Responsibilities and Capabilities of the BASIC

Countries ...............................................................................................28

A. Signicant and Growing Responsibilities for Climate Change ..........30

B. Enhanced Capabilities ......................................................................33

II. e Elusive Balance Between Justice and Participation in

Dierentiation .......................................................................................36

III. e BASIC Countries and CBDR: From Justice to Pragmatic

Considerations .......................................................................................38

A. Early CBDR: North-South Justice Over Pragmatism ........................40

B. Paris Agreement: Pragmatism Over Justice ........................................42

Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 46

Introduction

Recent debates on climate justice have centered primarily on questions such as

the inverse relationship between climate vulnerabilities and contributions to

climate change, the need for a rights-based approach to climate action, inter-

generational equity, and climate litigation.1 is chapter focuses on another

climate justice question, a question that has informed one of the earliest and

most enduring debates in the area. e question is how to fairly allocate

1. See, e.g., I B A, A J  H R   E 

C D (2014), http://www.ibanet.org/PresidentialTaskForceClimateChangeJustice-

2014Report.aspx; Edith Brown Weiss, Climate Change, Intergenerational Equity, and International

Law, 9 V. J. E. L. 615 (2008); W C.G. B  H O ., A

C C: S, N,  I A (2009); R. L  . .,

C C L: T L  P (2012); J P  H

O, C C L: R P  C E (2015).

Chapter 2

26 Climate Justice

the burdens and costs of collective climate action among vast ly asymmetric

countries when it comes to contributions to climate change (historic and

current greenhouse gas (GHG), absolute, and per capita emissions), capabili-

ties to address the climate challenge, development needs, and vu lnerabilities

to the impacts of global wa rming.2 Since its inception, this climate justice

debate ha s been framed as a question of intragenerational equity between

rich nations in the global North and poor nations in the global South.3

e literature places the principle of common but dierentiated responsi-

bilities and respective capabilities (CBDR) as the “focal point of the d ivide

between Northern and Southern countries”4 when it comes to the fair alloca-

tion of climate action under the 1992 United Nations Framework Conven-

tion on Climate Change (UNFCCC).5 Accordingly, debates on the evolution

of CBDR have often been framed as part of broader academic discussions

on how contemporary international law, and more specical ly international

environmental law, has been profoundly shaped by tensions along a geopo-

litical North-South div ide, one that ha s pitted de veloped countries against

developing countries.6 Since the mid-200 0s, environmental justice debates

related to dierentiation in international law have focused on this North-

South divide, while recognizing t he growing constraints of this conceptual

framework in a geopolitical world in ux.7 For the global South, CBDR has

been primarily a legal instrument to ensure a measure of intragenerational

climate justice. For the global North, dierentiation in international envi-

2. For a thorough justice-based analysis of the allocation of climate burdens and costs across countries,

see H S, C J: V  P (2014); see also E A. P

 D W, C C J (2010); Michael Trebilcock, Climate Change Policy:

Managing More Heat in the World’s Kitchens, in D W L: T P E 

P T (2014); W J. MK  P J. W, T R  E

 C C P (2002); Yoram Margalioth & Yinon Rudich, Close Examination of the

Principle of Global Per Capita: Allocation of the Earth’s Ability to Absorb Greenhouse Gas, 14 T-

 I L. 191 (2013).

3. S, supra note 2.

4. S A, H R A  C C: C  O-

 29 (2015); see also Rowena Maguire & Xiaoyi Jiang, Emerging Powerful Southern Voices: Role

of BASIC Nations in Shaping Climate Change Mitigation Commitments, in I E-

 L   G S (Shawkat Alam, Sumudu Atapattu, Carmen G. Gonzalez &

Jona Razzaque eds., 2015).

5. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, May 9, 1992, 1771 U.N.T.S. 107, 31

I.L.M. 849 (entered into force Mar. 21, 1994) [hereinafter UNFCCC].

6. I E L   G S, supra note 4. A H 

B K ., T I P   E (1992); M

A.L. M, T T W  G E P (1995).

7. See A M. H, E A U  I E L:

D T  D C (1999); Karin Michelson, South, North,

International Environmental Law, and International Environmental Lawyers, 11 Y.B. I’ E. L.

52 (2000); R A, I E J, A N-S D

(2004); S A, E P  I E L (2006).