The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was adopted at the UN headquarters (UNHQ) on 9 May 1992. It opened for signature at Rio de Janeiro between 4 and 14 June 1992 and thereafter at the UNHQ on 20 June 1992. That means that when, on 4 June 2022, UNFCCC turned 30, it coincided with the Stockholm+50 Conference (2–3 June 2022). In his address to the Stockholm+50 gathering, the UN Secretary-General (UNSG) Antonio Guterres construed “climate emergency” as one of the key drivers of the “triple planetary crisis”. As a framework convention with 197 states parties, the UNFCCC became one of the first global instruments to designate climate change as a common concern of humankind. With two subsequent treaties – the 1997 Kyoto Protocol and the 2015 Paris agreement – the climate change regime now consists of a corpus of instruments seeking to address this global problematique.

Since 1988, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) has been the conductor of the grand climate change orchestra. It has invoked the normativity of common concern and brought into being the UNEP-WMO joint mechanism of IPCC (UNGA resolution 43/53 of 8 December 1988). The resultant process for climate negotiations (1990–1992) accrued the UNFCCC.

The completion of three full decades (1992–2022) of the UNFCCC provided a unique opportunity to look back at the journey of global climate change regulation in order to look ahead for the realization of the primary objective (Article 2): “stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system”.

The growing scientific warnings lead us to believe that an unprecedented global warming is at work. For instance, the IPCC AR6 (April 2022) explicitly states: “Total net anthropogenic GHG emissions have continued to arise during the period 2010–2019... of about 12% (6.5 GtCO2-eq) higher than in 2010 and 54% (21 GtCO2-eq) higher than in 1990”. In view of this, the regulatory goal for the near future has been pegged at 1.5°C of global warming by 2050. Similarly, the UNEP’s Emissions Gap Report (October 2022) reinforced global concerns that “the international community is falling far short of the Paris goals, with no credible pathway to 1.5°C in place. Only an urgent system-wide transformation can avoid climate disaster”. The WMO predictions (2022) for sea-level rise also showed that “the years 2015 to 2022 were the eight warmest in the 173-year instrumental record. The year 2022 was the fifth or sixth warmest year on record”. As a sequel, the WMO (April 2023) has now issued warning that “during the period 2013-22 sea-level rise has been 4.5 mm/yr”. At least since 1971, the human influence has been regarded as the main driver of these increases. Cumulatively, these prognoses and projections have set the stage for a climate change emergency.

COP27 (Sharm el-Sheikh) was held from 6–20 November 2022 against the backdrop of these scientific predictions. It witnessed calls for ‘payment overdue’, and marked division and posturing among different groups of countries seeking to serve national rather than common interests. Even though COP27 adopted the decision on ‘loss and damage’ funding for the vulnerable countries hit hardest by climate disasters, it will take years to flesh out the mechanism and requisite funding for such compensation payments by the countries concerned. Previous experience of the fate of such climate funding commitments does not augur well. As the stalemate continued, thousands of assembled delegates began to leave the conference venue. On 19 November, the feisty UNSG stepped in again to nudge the negotiators with the warning that “Instead of a burning bush, we face a burning planet. This conference has been driven by two overriding themes: justice and ambition. Justice for those on the frontlines who did so little to cause the crisis... Ambition to keep the 1.5° limit alive and pull humanity back from the climate cliff”. It showed that the UNFCCC, the legally ordained platform for institutionalized cooperation for the stabilization of GHG concentration, appears to be floundering, and nowhere close to realizing its raison d’etre. What has gone wrong?

Given the above, it became natural for the journal Environmental Policy and Law (EPL) to place the global process for climate change regulation under the scanner in the scholarly realm. It took more than a year to crystallize the special climate change issue to mark the 30^th year of the UNFCCC. Our quest to find ideas for the decision-makers, within the constraints of time, space and resources, culminated in an EPL special issue (vol. 52, no. 5–6, 2022). This book includes the articles from that special issue, to provide a sequel to the two back-to-back books published by IOS Press: (i) Envisioning Our Environmental Future: Stockholm+50 and Beyond (2022); and (ii) Our Earth Matters: Pathways to a Better Common Environmental Future (2021). The dozen outstanding contributions in this curated study seek to make sense of the marathon climate-change regulatory process. The book is organized in five parts: I. Climate Normativity (B. Desai; M.A. Marmolejo Cervantes et al.); II. Regime @ Crossroads (D. Bodansky; M. Doelle); III. Climate Justice (K. Junker et al.; T. S. Tirumurti); IV. Factoring Gender (B. Desai et al.; R. Maguire et al.; E. Morgera et al.); V. Paris Conundrum (E. Rehbinder; M. Hautereau-Boutonnet et al.; O. Ruppel et al.).

Cumulatively, these ideational takes on different facets of the climate change juggernaut provide concrete elements for scholars and decision-makers to seriously ponder regarding the approach, process, tools and techniques used to address the primary objective of the UNFCCC. Does this mean going back to the drawing board? That would require the original progenitor, the UN General Assembly, to reframe the normative basis from ‘common concern’ to ‘planetary concern’. In the wake of the climate crisis assuming a planetary scale, the UNGA needs to take charge, adopting an appropriate normative process, possibly through an emergency special session, to provide a future direction for the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement processes. COP27 (2022) left nagging questions with regard to the three decades old global climate change regime, the in-built law-making processes, the sincerity of the state parties in taking the scientific evidence of human impact on climatic changes seriously, and effectiveness of the tools and techniques employed to address the challenge. Nothing spectacular is expected to take place at COP28, to be held in Dubai (UAE) from 30 November to 12 December 2023.

The advisory opinion sought by the UNGA (vide resolution 77/276 of 29 March 2023) from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is indicative of the crisis that pertains. The ICJ has been called upon to clarify what is already laid down in the three climate change treaties as regards: “obligations of States under international law to ensure the protection of the climate system and other parts of the environment from anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases for States and for present and future generations” as well as the “legal consequences under these obligations”. If the ICJ agrees to render an opinion, it will take about two years to do so. Will that make a critical difference in averting the climate crisis? It may give a fillip to the climate change related litigation in the domestic courts of law. Making the sovereign States to walk-the-talk of giving effect to their obligations (moral and legal) for the ‘stabilization’ of GHG concentrations in the atmosphere (UNFCCC, Article 2) to avert climate emergency remains the biggest challenge in this era of a planetary crisis.

Thus, as we look ahead, the future trajectory of the global climate change regulatory process remains uncertain. It presents an ideational challenge for the scholars of international law, the UNGA and the UNFCCC process to actually make it work by elevating the normative ambit from ‘common concern’ to ‘planetary concern’ with all attendant requirements including the three climate change treaties (1992; 1997; 2015). It can define the future direction of the entire climate change regulatory approach in a way that it will be scrupulously complied with in a timely manner by all the parties. The forthcoming Summit of the Future (UNGA resolution 76/307 of 8 September 2022), to be convened in New York on 22–23 September 2024, may possibly also provide an opportunity to shift into higher (emergency) gear for a decisive course correction which may rescue the earth from the planetary-scale climate crisis. Time will have to be very generous if it is to grant us enough latitude to achieve this.

Bharat H. Desai

Editor