Unit 3: International Environmental Law
3.1 Introduction to International Environmental Law
The field: the states’ environmental relations — the treaties, the customs, the soft-law (the declarations’ principles — Stockholm 1972, Rio 1992, Rio+20, Stockholm+50); the field’s youth (the 1970s’ birth) and growth (the hundreds of MEAs); the structure’s problems: the fragmentation (the regimes’ silos), the enforcement’s weakness (no environmental world court — the ICJ’s occasional role; the compliance committees’ soft machinery), the North-South’s structural politics.
3.2 Multilateral Environmental Agreements to which Nepal is a Party
3.2.1 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change 1992
The climate’s constitution: the ultimate objective (the dangerous interference’s prevention); the principles (the CBDR of U2.1.6); the Annex structure (the developed’s lead); the Kyoto Protocol (1997 — the binding targets; the CDM’s faces — Nepal’s carbon-market interest) → the Paris Agreement 2015 (the nationally-determined contributions — the bottom-up architecture; the 1.5-degree’s ambition; the adaptation-and-loss-damage faces). The Nepal party: the UNFCCC-Kyoto-Paris line’s member (the NDCs’ submission; the NAPA-and-NAP machinery; the climate-finance access — the honest audit of the flows).
3.2.2 UN Convention on Biodiversity 1992
The biodiversity’s framework: the objectives’ trio (the conservation, the sustainable use, the benefit-sharing); the Cartagena Protocol (the biosafety — the GMOs’ transboundary movement); the Nagoya Protocol (the access-and-benefit-sharing — the genetic resources; the LAW5502-U6’s TK interface); the Kunming-Montreal GBF (2022 — the 30-by-30 target). The Nepal party: the biodiversity’s mountain-hotspot steward (the National Biodiversity Strategy’s faces).
3.2.3 UN Convention to Combat Desertification 1994
The drylands’ convention: the land-degradation’s response (the Rio’s third sibling); the National Action Programmes; the drought’s faces. The Nepal party: the degraded-lands’ questions (the hills’ degradation-and-the high-Himalayan drylands).
3.2.4 World Heritage Convention 1972 and Intangible Cultural Heritage Convention 2003
The heritage’s pair: the natural-and-cultural properties’ protection (the List’s prestige-and-duties — the Sagarmatha-and-Chitwan’s listings; the danger-listing’s politics); the intangible heritage’s safeguarding (the living practices — the festivals, the crafts; Nepal’s elements’ inscriptions). The Nepal party to both
This is a preview. The complete Environmental Law notes — full unit, Exam Focus box and model questions — are in the PDF / full version. Get the complete notes →