What would ecological climate change law look like? Developing a method for analysing the international climate change regime from an ecological perspective

Abstract

Statements and commitments made in the climate change treaties record the desire of their parties to preserve ecosystem functionality and situations that depend on this as an outcome of their collective response to global warming. Despite this, little attention has been given in climate law literature to the appropriateness of the legal framework they establish for achieving their stated ecological goals. This may be due in part to the lack of a method for analysing the climate change treaties from an ecological perspective. This article seeks to develop such a method by considering the key questions that States would need to answer when formulating a treaty for combating global warming in ways that advance goals associated with maintaining current structures and functions of ecosystems. It also identifies ways in which detailing of the Paris Agreement’s provisions could be used to promote ecosystem preservation as an outcome of international climate action.