Introduction to International Climate Change Law

Abstract

Introductory chapter to new treatise on international climate change. The chapter (a) provides a brief overview of the climate change problem; (b) describes three perspectives on the problem (environmental, economic, and ethical); (c) delineates the boundaries of international climate change law; (d) introduces three recurring themes in the development of the UN climate change regime (legal bindingness, architecture; and differentiation), and (e) introduces the broader context of international climate change law, including its relationship to other areas of international law and to polycentric climate change governance.

Keywords: climate change, global warming, Kyoto Protocol, Paris Agreement, treaties, framework convention

JEL Classification: K32, K33