01 / Reading Guide
Reading Guide
Citation
Mayer, B. (2018). The International Law on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press.
Chapter Summary
Context and Argument
Cambridge describes the book as a textbook surveying the international law on climate change. It explains how significant international agreements have sought to promote compliance with general norms of international law, and it gives an account of the rules agreed through the negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and other forums on mitigation, geoengineering, adaptation, loss and damage, and international support. It is intended for undergraduate and graduate students of climate, environmental or international law, and it is supported by a website with regularly updated lists of materials and updates for each chapter.
The book has sixteen chapters and about 275 pages of text. Its structure runs from the rationale for action and the history of the UNFCCC regime (Chapters 2 to 4), through the general norms and the principle of differentiation (Chapters 5 and 6), to the substantive areas of mitigation, adaptation, loss and damage and support (Chapters 7 to 12), and finally to compliance, adjudication and non-state actors (Chapters 13 to 15). The last chapter asks what climate change does to international law itself.
Chapter 1: Introduction
The chapter gives the scientific and legal background: the greenhouse effect, human emissions and their consequences, and the scope and structure of international climate law.
Chapter 2: The Rationale for International Action on Climate Change
The chapter sets out why states act together on climate change, drawing on science, economics and the ideas of justice (corrective, distributive, intergenerational and environmental), and considers obstacles to action and the case for international cooperation.
Chapter 3: The UNFCCC Regime, from Rio to Paris
It traces the regime from the 1992 Convention through the Kyoto Protocol to the Paris Agreement, with the institutions, commitments and principles established along the way.
Chapter 4: Relevant Developments in Other Regimes
The chapter looks at other international regimes that bear on climate change, such as the protection of the ozone layer, international transport and biodiversity.
Chapter 5: Relevant Norms of General International Law
It considers general norms that apply to climate change, including the no-harm principle, sustainable development, precaution and the polluter-pays principle, state responsibility and human rights law.
Chapter 6: Differentiation
The chapter examines the grounds for treating states differently, such as historical emissions and capacity, and how differentiation has been put into practice in the UNFCCC regime.
Chapter 7: International Action on Climate Change Mitigation
The chapter reviews the collective objectives, national commitments and mitigation measures, including action under treaty regimes beyond the UNFCCC.
Chapter 8: Flexibility Mechanisms
It covers joint implementation, the Clean Development Mechanism and carbon trading, and considers how effective these mechanisms are.
Chapter 9: Geoengineering
The chapter discusses techniques such as solar radiation management and carbon dioxide removal, and the legal and ethical questions about their regulation.
Chapter 10: International Action on Climate Change Adaptation
It deals with adaptation under the UNFCCC and other regimes and with support for vulnerable countries.
Chapter 11: Loss and Damage
It examines harm that mitigation and adaptation do not avoid, the UNFCCC work on loss and damage, and the difficulty of securing reparation under international law.
Chapter 12: International Support
The chapter covers finance, technology and capacity building under the UNFCCC, including the Green Climate Fund and REDD+.
Chapter 13: Ambition and Compliance
It looks at the architecture of climate agreements and at how compliance is encouraged: transparency, review and the gap between conduct and commitments.
Chapter 14: Adjudication
It discusses the prospects of litigation before international courts and the growing body of climate cases at the national level.
Chapter 15: Non-State Actors
It treats the role of NGOs, businesses and civil society in negotiations, voluntary commitments and standard-setting.
Chapter 16: International Law in Times of Climate Change
The final chapter reflects on what climate change means for international law, including how it affects the understanding of general principles and state responsibility.
Key Concepts
Chapters 1–6
- UNFCCC regime: the framework convention and its protocol and agreement, which structure international climate cooperation.
- Justice rationales: corrective, distributive, intergenerational and environmental justice as reasons for action.
- Differentiation: different obligations for different states, tied to responsibility and capacity.
Chapters 7–12
- Mitigation and adaptation: the two principal strands of the legal response to climate change.
- Flexibility mechanisms: market-based tools such as joint implementation, the Clean Development Mechanism and emissions trading.
- Geoengineering: deliberate large-scale intervention in the climate system, and the legal questions it raises.
- Loss and damage: harm that cannot be avoided by mitigation or adaptation.
Chapters 13–16
- Ambition and compliance: the relationship between what states promise and what they do.
- Climate adjudication: international and domestic courts as venues for climate claims.
- Non-state actors: NGOs, firms and civil society in climate governance.
Critical Analysis
Strengths
- Designed as a textbook. The publisher presents the book as a survey for students, with a chapter-by-chapter website of updates. The sixteen chapters are short, between about eleven and twenty-four pages, so each topic can be read in a sitting.
- Wide and organised coverage. The chapters include areas often treated only briefly, such as flexibility mechanisms, geoengineering, loss and damage and non-state actors.
- Links climate law to general international law. Separate chapters on other regimes and on general norms show how climate treaties relate to the wider legal order, which suits students of public international law.
- Support for keeping up to date. The companion website offers updated materials for each chapter.
Limitations
- Date. The text was published in 2018, so developments after the Paris Agreement's early implementation, including later negotiating rounds and decisions of courts, require other sources.
- Survey depth. Short chapters mean that the detailed treaty text and negotiating history of any one regime have to be taken from primary sources or specialist books.
- Prior knowledge helps. Readers who have not studied public international law will need to look up concepts such as state responsibility and treaty interpretation.
Where It Fits in the Course
Among the environmental law titles, Bell and others' Environmental Law and Holder and others' Environmental Protection, Law and Policy concentrate on domestic and EU environmental law. Lazarus's The Making of Environmental Law is a history of United States environmental law. Sands and others' Principles of International Environmental Law is a comprehensive treatise on the whole field of international environmental law, within which climate change is one topic.
Mayer's book is the specialist title on climate. Read it after an introduction to international environmental law, or alongside the climate chapters of Sands. It is the natural choice for a course or dissertation specifically on climate change law.
How to Use This Book
It is written for students of climate, environmental or international law, at undergraduate or graduate level.
A practical plan:
- Core: Chapters 2, 3, 5 and 6 for the rationale, the regime and the general norms; Chapters 7, 10 and 12 for the three main substantive areas.
- Reading by topic: Chapters 8 and 9 for flexibility mechanisms and geoengineering, and Chapter 11 for loss and damage, can be picked up as the course requires.
- Application: Chapters 13 and 14 for compliance and litigation, and Chapter 16 for reflection on the effect of climate change on international law.
- Alongside the book: use the companion website and the current texts of the UNFCCC, the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement, and check each chapter against the latest decisions.