The Role of Paris Agreement in the Application of the Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities (CBDR-RC) Principle
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Published:
May 25, 2023
Keywords:
Compliance Mechanism, Paris Agreement, Principle of CBDR-RC
Main Article Content
Abstract
The Paris Agreement is one of the climate change agreements that formed on the basis of voluntary
contributions and uses the principle of Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective
Capabilities (CBDR-RC) as the ground norm of its implementation. The principle allows state parties to
determine their own targets and efforts to reduce emissions on a national and global level. However, the
principle poses a challenge to the Agreement because it could lead to non-compliance by the state
parties and reduce their ambition to achieve net-zero emission targets. In addition, the question arises as
to how international law can encourage compliance with the CBDR-RC principle and what efforts are
made to achieve an effective implementation. This article provides an understanding of the role of
international law in accommodating the dynamics of the CBDR-RC principle in the context of climate
change. It also discusses the role of international law in the compliance process and its relation to
compliance mechanisms as an effort to encourage the implementation of CBDR-RC principle. The result
indicates that international law through the principle can encourage state parties to comply by filling the
gap in the Agreement which is the soft rules. Therefore, a good compliance committee and rules that
consist of an easy way for state parties to comply are needed to achieve an effective implementation of
the principles.
Article Details
How to Cite
Adriansyah, P. A. Z., R. A. Gusman Catur Siswandi, & Imam Mulyana. (2023). The Role of Paris Agreement in the Application of the Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities (CBDR-RC) Principle. Padjadjaran Journal of International Law, 7(1), 109-130. https://doi.org/10.23920/pjil.v7i1.1324
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
References
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Journals
Alexander ZAHAR, “A Bottom-Up Compliance Mechanism for the Paris Agreement”, Chinese Journal of Environmental Law 1, 2017.
Andrew T. Guzman, “A Compliance-Based Theory of International Law”, California Law Review, Vol. 90, No. 6, 2002.
Anna Hugguns, “Shifting Traction: Differential Treatment and Substantive and Procedural Regard in the International Climate Change Regime”, Transnational Environmental Law, 5:2, 2016.
Arum Siwiendrayanti, “Perubahan Iklim dan Pengaruhnya terhadap Sektor Kesehatan”, Jurnal Kesehatan Masyarakat, Volume 3 No. 1, 2007.
Benoit Mayer, “State Responsibility and Climate Change Governance: A light through the Storm”, Chinese Journal of International Law, Vol 13(3), 2014.
Christina Voight, “The Compliance and Implementation Mechanism of the Paris Agreement”, RECIEL, 25 (2), 2016.
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Siti Sumartini, Suhaendi Salidja, “Penerapan Prinsip Common but Differentiated Responsivility Dihubungkan dengan Prinsip Tanggung Jawab Negara dalam Penegakan Hukum Lingkungan, Gema Wiralodra, Vol 13, No 1, April 2022.
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Daniel Bodansky, “Paris Agreement”, United Nations Audiovidual Library of International Law, https://legal.un.org/avl/pdf/ha/pa/pa_e.pdf, accessed on 16 December 2022.
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Jhalak Aggarwal, Nikita Shukla, Sumit Prasad, & Shikha Bhasin, “Strengthening Climate Accountability: Improving Compliance and Delivery under the Paris Agreement”, New Delhi: Council on Energy, Environment and Water, 2022.
Julia Simon, “Despite billions to get off coal, why is Indonesia still building new coal plants?”, npr.org, https://www.npr.org/2023/02/05/1152823939/despite-billions-to-get-off-coal-why-is-indonesia-still-building-new-coal-plants, accessed on 2 May 2023.
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Others
Carter A. Hanson, “Hard and soft law in the Paris Climate Agreement”, Student Publications, 925, https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/student_scholarship/925.
Imad Antoine Ibrahim, et. al, “The Paris Agreement Compliance Mechanism: Preparing for COP 26 In Glasgow and Beyond”, 11 WAKE FOREST L. REV. ONLINE _ (2021 Forthcoming), University of Miami Legal Studies Research Paper No. 3958371, 2021.
Lea PFEFFER, “The Position of the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries in Regards to the COP 21”, SciencesPO, 2015.
Bharat H. Desai, Creeping Institutionalization Multilateral Environmental Agreements & Human Security, Germany: UNU Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS), 2006.
Dana Desonie, Ph.D., Climate Causes and Effects of Climate Change, USA: Chelsea House Publishers, 2008.
Hersch Lauterpacht, The Development of International Law by the International Court, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1982.
J. Brunnée, “Promoting Compliance with Multilateral Environmental Agreement”’, in: J. Brunnée, M. Doelle, L. Rajamani, Promoting Compliance in an Evolving Climate Regime, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
Lavanya Rajamani, “Understanding the 2015 Paris Agreement”, in: India in a Warming World: Integrating Climate Change and Development, Delhi: Oxford Academic, 2019.
Malcolm N Shaw, “International Law Today”, International Law (Ninth Edition), UK: Cambridge University Press, 2021.
Vietnam Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, International Environmental Law Multilateral Environmental Agreements, Hanoi: International Publishing House, 2017.
Journals
Alexander ZAHAR, “A Bottom-Up Compliance Mechanism for the Paris Agreement”, Chinese Journal of Environmental Law 1, 2017.
Andrew T. Guzman, “A Compliance-Based Theory of International Law”, California Law Review, Vol. 90, No. 6, 2002.
Anna Hugguns, “Shifting Traction: Differential Treatment and Substantive and Procedural Regard in the International Climate Change Regime”, Transnational Environmental Law, 5:2, 2016.
Arum Siwiendrayanti, “Perubahan Iklim dan Pengaruhnya terhadap Sektor Kesehatan”, Jurnal Kesehatan Masyarakat, Volume 3 No. 1, 2007.
Benoit Mayer, “State Responsibility and Climate Change Governance: A light through the Storm”, Chinese Journal of International Law, Vol 13(3), 2014.
Christina Voight, “The Compliance and Implementation Mechanism of the Paris Agreement”, RECIEL, 25 (2), 2016.
G. Wyeth, “For Pacific Island States, Climate Change is an Existential Threat. The Diplomat”, thediplomat.com, https://thediplomat.com/2017/06/for-pacific-island-states-climate-change-is-an-existential-threat/ , accessed on 2 May 2023.
Lavanya Rajamani, “Understanding the 2015 Paris Agreement”, India in a Warming World: Integrating Climate Change and Development, Delhi: Oxford Academic, 2019.
M. Mustangin, “Perubahan Iklim dan Aksi Menghadapi Dampaknya: Ditinjau dari Peran Serta Perempuan Desa Pagerwangi”, Jurnal Pendidikan dan Pemberdayaan Masyarakat, 4 (1), 2017.
McNair, A.D., “The Functions and Differing Legal Character of Treaties”, British Yearbook of International Law (BYIL), Vol. 11, 1930.
Silvia Bacchetta, “Reasons for Agreeing, Reasons for Complying: The Paris Agreement and the Compliance Issue”, https://journals.openedition.org/estetica/7285, 2020.
Siti Sumartini, Suhaendi Salidja, “Penerapan Prinsip Common but Differentiated Responsivility Dihubungkan dengan Prinsip Tanggung Jawab Negara dalam Penegakan Hukum Lingkungan, Gema Wiralodra, Vol 13, No 1, April 2022.
Vegard H. Tørstad, “Participation, ambition and compliance: can the Paris Agreement solve the effectiveness trilemma?”, Environmental Politics, 2020.
Wolfgang Friedmann, “The Uses of “General Principles” in the Development of International Law”, The American Journal of International Law, Vol. 57, No. 2, 1963.
Yingzhen Gong, Xinman Chen, Sicheng Lin, Mingzhe Wu, “Study on Compliance, and Practice of International Law and Remedies”, ICPRSS, 2022.
ZHANG Hai-Bin, Dai Han-Cheng, Lai-Hua Xia, “U.S. Withdrawal from the Paris Agreement: Reasons, impacts, and China’s response”, Advances in Climate Change Research, Vol 8, 2017.
Legal Documents
Paris Agreement 2015.
UNEP, “Key concepts, procedures and mechanisms of legally binding multilateral agreements that may be relevant to furthering compliance under the future mercury instrument”, UNEP(DTIE)/Hg/INC.1/1, 15 March 2010, para 31.
UNFCCC, Decision 1/CP.21, Adoption of the Paris Agreement, FCCC/CP/2015/10/Add.1 (2015).
Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties 1069.
Websites
ADB, “An Existential Threat: How Climate Change is Impacting the atoll Countries, The Asian Development Bank”, 2019, adb.org, https://www.adb.org/news/videos/existential-threat-how-climate-change-impacting-atoll-countries, accessed on 6 August 2022.
Anu Bradford, “Regime theory”, Oxford Public International Law, 2007.
Charlotte Epstein, “common but differentiated responsibilities”, Britannica.com, https://www.britannica.com/topic/asylum, accessed on 2 May 2023.
Climate Watch, “Global Historical Emissions”, climatewatchdata.org, https://www.climatewatchdata.org/ghg-emissions?regions=TOP§ors=total-including-lucf&source=CAIT, accessed on 8 September 2022.
Daniel Bodansky, “Paris Agreement”, United Nations Audiovidual Library of International Law, https://legal.un.org/avl/pdf/ha/pa/pa_e.pdf, accessed on 16 December 2022.
Emmanuel Macron, “The ‘yellow vest’ movement explained”, aljazera.com, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/12/4/the-yellow-vest-movement-explained, accessed on 1 May 2023.
Hans Nicholas Jong, “Indonesian president slammed for wait and see proach on climate action”, news.mongabay.com, https://news.mongabay.com/2021/05/indonesian-president-joko-jokowi-widodo-slammed-for-wait-and-see-approach-on-climate-action/, accessed on 2 May 2023.
Indonesia, “Enhanced Nationally Determined Contribution Republic of Indonesia”, unfccc.int, https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/NDC/2022-09/ENDC%20Indonesia.pdf.
Jhalak Aggarwal, Nikita Shukla, Sumit Prasad, & Shikha Bhasin, “Strengthening Climate Accountability: Improving Compliance and Delivery under the Paris Agreement”, New Delhi: Council on Energy, Environment and Water, 2022.
Julia Simon, “Despite billions to get off coal, why is Indonesia still building new coal plants?”, npr.org, https://www.npr.org/2023/02/05/1152823939/despite-billions-to-get-off-coal-why-is-indonesia-still-building-new-coal-plants, accessed on 2 May 2023.
Michael Edison Hayden, “Five Solomon Islands Disappear Into the Pacific Ocean as a Result of Climate Change”, 2016, abcnews.go.com, https://abcnews.go.com/International/solomon-islands-disappear-pacific-ocean-result-climate-change/story?id=38985469, accessed on 6 August 2022.
Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, Disaster Management and Meteorology Honiara, Solomon Islands, Solomon Islands 2021: Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), unfccc.int, https://www4.unfccc.int/sites/ndcstaging/PublishedDocuments/Solomon%20Islands%20First/NDC%20Report%202021%20Final%20Solomon%20Islands%20(1).pdf.
Neha Jain, “General Principles of Law as Gap-Fillers”, https://conferences.law.stanford.edu/2014hsyjrfacforum/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2016/08/Jain_General_Principles_of_Law_6-15-14.pdf, 2016.
Norwegian Ministry of Climate and Environment, “Norway’s Eight National Communication”, December 2022, unfccc.int, https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/resource/Norway%20NC8_BR5.pdf, accessed on 25 February 2023.
The UNECE Committee on Environmental Policy, “Case Studies on Implementation of Environmental Policies in Countries Reviewed under the UNECE Performance Review Programme”, ECE/BELGRADECONF/2007/1/Add.1, October 2007.
UN, “Causes and Effects of Climate Change”, un.org, https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/science/causes-effects-climate-change#:~:text=Causes%20of%20Climate%20Change&text=Generating%20electricity%20and%20heat%20by,and%20trap%20the%20sun's%20heat., accessed on 10 August 2022.
WWF, “Norway: Some Way to Go”, panda.org, https://wwf.panda.org/discover/our_focus/climate_and_energy_practice/ndcs_we_want/reviewed_ndcs_/norway/, accessed on 25 February 2023.
Others
Carter A. Hanson, “Hard and soft law in the Paris Climate Agreement”, Student Publications, 925, https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/student_scholarship/925.
Imad Antoine Ibrahim, et. al, “The Paris Agreement Compliance Mechanism: Preparing for COP 26 In Glasgow and Beyond”, 11 WAKE FOREST L. REV. ONLINE _ (2021 Forthcoming), University of Miami Legal Studies Research Paper No. 3958371, 2021.
Lea PFEFFER, “The Position of the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries in Regards to the COP 21”, SciencesPO, 2015.