8 - State Consent in the Evolving Climate Regime

Summary

The author examines the interplay between the individual and collective dimensions of treaty-based law-making and standard-setting processes in the United Nations climate regime. The reason why the author attempts to do so is that multilateral treaties have been the main anchors for international environmental law-making. In this context, State consent not only has individual effects, but also feeds into a collective process. The chapter begins by exploring the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol. It then turns to the Paris Agreement and the shift to what has been described as a ‘bottom-up’ approach. The perhaps most striking feature of this approach is its reliance on non-binding, ‘nationally determined contributions’ (hereafter NDCs). From the vantage point of State consent, the most significant consequence of the Paris Agreement’s NDC approach is a shift away from the anchoring of consent to climate action in treaty-based processes, and hence from the linkages that adoption and entry-into-force requirements establish between multiple parties’ individual expressions of consent.