Oldal 107 [107]
FUNDAMENTAL CHALLENGES OF ENVIRONMENTAL LAW 105
environmental treaties is increasing over time, but they are mostly limited to setting
out directions, expectations and principles (in order to build the consensus needed
for adoption).’ It is therefore not surprising that no binding international agreement
was reached at the Stockholm Conference, the first UN World Conference on the
Environment, in June 1972. In this respect, the World Conference on Environment
and Development,” held 20 years later, was the most successful international event
to date, as it produced two key international treaties: the UN Framework
Convention on Climate Change,'' and the Convention on Biological Diversity.’*
Most recently, 2015 was a very important milestone at the international level, with
the adoption of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with its
associated Sustainable Development Goals, and the Paris Agreement (Bodansky
— Brunnée — Ramajani 2017: 209; Dupuy — Viñuales 2018: 20).
The best-known international environmental treaties are the so-called Multilateral
Environmental Agreements (MEAs), especially those that could enter into force
upon being signed and thus start to be applied in practice (Sand et al. 2019).
Examples include the 1973 Washington Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, the 1979 Geneva Convention on
Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (LRTAP), the 1985 Vienna Convention
for the Protection of the Ozone Layer (MEAs) and the Montreal Protocol of 1987
on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, the 1991 Espoo Convention on
Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context, the 1998 Aarhus
Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making
and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters, the 2001 Stockholm Convention
on Persistent Organic Pollutants, or the 2013 Minamata Convention on Mercury.
In addition to these are an increasing number of regional and more limited
multilateral treaties (e.g., at the European level).
Problems of implementation
It is clear that the effective management of global environmental problems and
the avoidance of damage requires states to exert coordinated action , but there is
no effective mechanism under international law to force states to comply with
their obligations in the event of breaches of international environmental rules.
This was clearly demonstrated when Canada withdrew from the 1997 Kyoto
Protocol in 2011 and Russia, Japan and Australia announced their intention not
to commit to its second period. A similar situation was created by Donald Trump's
announcement in June 2017 that the US would withdraw from the Paris Agreement,
and it did four years later." The road to the Paris Agreement and the developments
since then show perfectly that, in addition to the difficulties in developing and
The specific obligations and accountable standards are usually set out in the additional protocol(s)
to be adopted at a later stage.
United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED)
"UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)
In 2021, Joe Biden launched the procedure to rejoin the Agreement with one of his first presidential
decrees after his inauguration.