COPs and their Disadvantages

COPs and their DisadvantagesManage the mutual relationship by fostering institutional cooperation and coordination. such(prenominal) cooperation could take place simply through information exchanges betwixt conformity bodies, or in a to a greater extent ambitious form comprising joint readying of programmes or even the coordination of substantive decision-making or implementation activities. It argues that this soft alternative also has its limitations, which can be explained by incongruent memberships and limited legal mandates. It appears that epoch the treaty bodies of theUNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol have been rather passive on the issue of the relationship with the biodiversity convention, the CBD COP has actively sought to manage the interactions between the regimes. Since the adoption of this decision, however, thither have been no major efforts to manage interactions between the dickens treaties. The CBD parties, in contrast, have adopted various decisions on biodiversi ty and climate change. These decisions have been instrumental in highlighting biodiversity concerns in UNFCCC decisions but have not led to strong references to biodiversity in the climate regimes decisions on forests. Although the institutional cooperation efforts to address the interactions between the climate and biodiversity regime are clearly intensifying, their effects are as of yet uncertain at best, they can be seen as creating mutual awareness and building force at various levels at worst, they can be viewed as an exercise in rhetoric. First, any effort by actors in superstar regime to make up ones mind rule development in another will be limited by the extent to which memberships are congruent. In this campaign, an important barrier is that the join States is a party to the UNFCCC, but not to the CBD. A broad mandate for the climate regimes treaty or administrative bodies to cooperate with the CBD could lead to the perception that state reign is eroded by importing co ncepts or rules from the CBD.304 A submission by the United States to the UNFCCC seems to confirm this fear. Commenting on the paper concerning options for enhanced cooperation prepared by the interchangeable Liaison Group in 2004, the United States notes that the Rio traffic patterns have a distinct legal character, mandate and membership.305 Although this limitation whitethorn not have to hold for the Kyoto Protocol-to which the United States is not a party after each-the secretariats mandate for cooperation is determined by the UNFCCC COP rather than the Kyoto Protocols COP/MOP. More generally, it shows that parties in the climate regime may not be ready to give biodiversity conservation a more(prenominal) prominent place at the expense of achieving cost-effective emission reductions.Legal solutions The model of conflict proclamation leads to the second explanation of why legal techniques are not necessarily the most appropriate means to manage regime interactions it is not always desirable that one norm prevails over another. Yet such a view ignores the notion that different treaties may pursue similar or overlapping objectives. This is particularly pertinent in the field of international environmental law. In the context of the interactions between the climate and biodiversity regimes, this would mean that any satisfactory resolution needs to result in further greenhouse gas emission reductions, while simultaneously ensuring the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. My main point is that the counselling on normative conflict has overshadowed the idea that norms may also reinforce each other. There is, for instance, a strong argument for using the concept of sustainable development as an overarching objective for international environmental law, and perhaps even international law more generally. The ILC Study Group report has not all told ignored this critique. In its discussion of conflict articles, the report acknowledges that in som e cases it is necessary to put in place a clause that avoids a straightforward priority and instead seeks to coordinate the simultaneous application of the two treaties as far as possible. This is in line with Chambers, who suggests that there is a need to create a positive rule of cooperation . . . which promotes treaty negotiators and treaty interpreters to maintain consistency between treaties. too narrowly focused on conflicts. Conflict resolution rules resulting in a hierarchical relationship of norms may still be useful in conflicts between legal regimes with incompatible objectives, but management of interactions between environmental treaties more generally may be better achieved through conflict avoidance techniques, as well as institutional cooperation and coordination.http//www.glogov.org/images/doc/WP30.pdfIt concludes that neither legal nor semipolitical approaches are a panacea for interplay management. However, there is potential for the one approach to address the gaps in the other. Whereas international law does not address synergies between environmental treaties, strengthened political coordination and cooperation between them could. It is worth investigating further how international law and politics can work together in reaping synergies and addressing conflicts between five-lobed regimes on climate change. In short, the very nature of climate change as an issue of sustainable development makes it almost impossible to capture all relevant aspects under a single legal regime, necessitating the consideration of interactions with other regimes. Similarly, it is not always necessary for two treaties to state their mutual supportiveness in purchase order for States to implement them in a synergetic fashion.The main questions for international lawyers are 1) can a conflict be established? and 2) if so, which treaty prevails? CONFLICT CLAUSES The get-go point in addressing conflicts is examining whether States have sought to regulate these t hrough so-called conflict clauses (Pauwelyn 2003). The purpose of these clauses is to clarify the relation between treaties, thus preventing contradictions. This can be achieved, for example, by providing that existing treaties prevail or that a new agreement prevails over existing ones (Wolfrum and Matz 2003). It would not be advisable for the Paris agreement to trust on the adoption of conflict clauses due to their prioritising nature which doesnt conform to scientific management. In contrast, the climate agreements contain several clauses that regulate their relation with other two-part treaties. With regard to the Montreal Protocol, the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol delimit their scope by only covering greenhouse gases not controlled by the Montreal Protocol. Thereby, the climate agreements express awareness of the substantive interlinkages between the problems of climate change and ozone layer depletion, as some ozone-depleting substances are also greenhouse gases. However, i t does not in itself prevent or resolve conflicts. Another clause is relevant for an issue that has garnered much attention, namely the use of carbon sinks in the Kyoto Protocols Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). Forestry projects are to a limited extent entitled for emission reduction credits under the CDM rules. However, it is feared that these rules do not ensure the protection of biodiversity and the prevention of land degradation, and could hence conflict with objectives and obligations of other environmental treaties Although this preparedness does not state which agreements need to be taken into account, it is reasonable to assume that given the role of forests and wetlands as sinks, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands are relevant. Additionally, the membership of these agreements should be taken into account it is difficult to see how an agreement can be relevant for a Part y that has not signed or ratified it. However, it is unclear what precisely is meant with taking into account, leaving open the question which treaty would prevail in case of a conflict. TREATY INTERPRETATION Treaty interpretation is an important method that can be applied by diplomats and dispute settlement bodies to harmonise two norms that seem to be in conflict. Art 31 VCLT provides gives basic interpretation rules, stipulating that a treatys ordinary meaning, its context, and its object and purpose should be taken into consideration. It also gives more dynamic interpretation rules, which determine that interpretation should take into account a) any subsequent agreement between the Parties on interpretation of the treaty, b) any subsequent recitation in the application of the treaty, and c) any relevant rules of international law applicable in the relations between the parties. CONFLICT RESOLUTION RULES Article 30 VCLT provides rules on the resolution of conflicts. An apparent limitation of this provision is that it only applies to treaties relating to the same subject matter (Article 30.1 VCLT). Of course, application then depends on how one defines subject matter. On the one hand, if this is seen as broad as protection of the environment, Article 30 could theoretically apply to conflicts between the UNFCCC and CBD. The previous section has shown that international law does not particularly aim at enhancing synergies between treaties. Stokke (2001) points to the relevance of institutional coordination and cooperation in dealing with interactions. This could take place simply through information exchange between treaty bodies, or in a more ambitious form of comprising joint planning of programmes or even the coordination of substantive decision-making or implementation activities The climate regime has become increasingly involved in this form of interplay management.