The Sustainability of Kyoto's Architecture: Where Did the Victims of Climate Change Go?
Résumé
The premise of my project is that although future generations in all countries will be affected by climate change, the inhabitants of poor countries and small island states will be especially hard hit in less than 30 years; however, their situation has been neglected by the current international regime. This neglect can be demonstrated and explained using approaches from political science (mainly policy analysis and the Advocacy Coalition Framework by Sabatier), which says that the decisions behind privileged tradable pollution rights and the valuation of mitigation over adaptation strategies, among other policy instruments, have been pushed forward by powerful actors who clearly benefit from this institutional framework. Emission markets and mitigation strategies will not have any short or middle term effects in attenuating the damages that will hit poor and coastal countries. Thus, it is necessary to empower these territories by adding juridical arguments to the ethical ones that have already been advanced in 54 requiring compensation from states that are historically responsible for the short- and intermediate-term rise in sea levels. Actually there isn’t any property right to the climate system. Therefore, the possibility of protecting this resource is quite limited because without ownership no legal action can be undertaken in the case of third party damages. Thus, a “right to a stable climate” seems to be currently inadmissible in any court of justice. One way to deal with this problem is the use of the concept “expropriation”. According to many national laws the state must provide compensation when land owners are restricted in their uses of their property as a result of state activity. In principle, such a legal provision could reinforce the position of those who will suffer from a loss of use rights due to a rise in sea levels. Although there are still many political obstacles to suing a state or a private actor on the grounds that it is emitting GHG, the concept of “expropriation” emphasises the need for a form of compensation for the victims of climate change, a new burden-sharing agreement and open doors to legal and political actions.
