CHAPTER 1 Introduction

Climate change has been discussed broadly around the world and is recognised as a factor contributing to all global issues.1 As an environmental, cultural and political phenomenon, has been reshaping the way that people think about themselves, about their societies and about humanity’s place on earth.2 (GHG) emissions constitute the largest contribution to climate change,3 and have thus attracted mounting attention from the inter- national community as to how to effectively reduce GHG emissions on a global scale. One of the crucial global efforts is the international climate change regime, which comprises rules, norms, principles and procedures applicable to a range of activities.4 International, regional and national regulations have been developed since the late 1970s to reduce GHG emissions.5 Among them,

1 Milke Hulme, ‘The Idea of Climate Change’ (2010) 19(3) GAIA: Ecological Perspectives for Science & Society 171, 171. Hulme asserts that climate change has become an idea that now travels well beyond its origins in the natural sciences. Climate change takes on new meanings and serves new purposes, and has thus become ‘the mother of all issues’. See also Susanne Moser, Heide Hackmann and Françoise Caillods, ‘Global Environmental Change Changes Everything: Key Messages and Recommendations’ in ISSC/UNESCO (ed), World Social Science Report 2013: Changing Global Environments (OECD Publishing and Unesco Publishing, 2013) 50. This report concludes that ‘the social sciences must help to fundamentally reframe climate and global environmental change from a physical into a social problem’. 2 Hulme, above n. 1. 3 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), ‘Fifth Assessment Report: Working Group I Report’ (2013) accessed 17 November 2013, Summary for Policymakers, p. 8. The summary for policymakers of the Working Group I Report asserts that ‘the largest contri- bution to total [of climate change] is caused by the increase in the atmo- spheric concentration of CO2 since 1750’. 4 Xinyuan Dai, ‘Global Regime and National Change’ (2010) 10(6) Climate Policy 622, 623. See also Patricia W. Birnie, Alan E. Boyle and Catherine Redgwell, International Law and the Environment (Oxford University Press, 3rd ed, 2009) 336. 5 See, e.g., Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution, opened for signature 13 November 1979, 18 ILM 1442 (entered into force 16 March 1983); Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer, opened for signature 22 March 1985, 26 ILM 1529 (entered into force 22 September 1988); Midwest Greenhouse Gas Reduction Accord, signed on 15 November 2007, accessed

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���7 | doi ��.��63/9789004329317_002 2 chapter 1 the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)6 and its 7 have provided the foundation for subsequent efforts to promote the international climate change regime. Various global efforts and outcomes, including the 2007 Bali Road Map,8 2010 Cancun Agreements,9 2011 Durban Package,10 2012 Doha Climate Gateway,11 2013 Warsaw Outcomes,12 as well as the adopted in December 2015,13 have been shaping and will continue to shape the current international climate change regime.14 One shortcoming of the international climate change regime is that produc- ers of GHG emissions from international shipping are exempt from liabilities under the Kyoto Protocol, notwithstanding that the contribution of GHG emis- sions from international shipping to climate change is significant and has been increasing.15 Given the urgency of emission reduction and the global nature of the shipping industry, a global approach must be employed to regulate GHG emissions from shipping. The UNFCCC and the International Maritime

17 November 2013; Clean Air Act of the United States of America, 17 December 1963, 42 USC 7401–7626. 6 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, opened for signature 9 May 1992, 31 ILM 848 (entered into force 21 March 1994) (‘UNFCCC’). 7 Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, opened for signature 16 March 1998, 37 ILM 22 (entered into force 16 February 2005) (‘Kyoto Protocol’). 8 Bali Action Plan, Decision 1/CP.13, Report of the Conference of the Parties on its Thirteenth Session, Doc FCCC/CP/2007/6/Add.1 (14 March 2008). 9 The Cancun Agreements, Decisions 1–2/CMP.6, Report of the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol on its Sixth Session, FCCC/ KP/CMP/2010/12/Add.1 (15 March 2011); Decision 1/CP.16, Report of the Conference of the Parties on its Sixteenth Session, FCCC/CP/2010/7/Add.1 (15 March 2011). 10 UNFCCC, Durban: Towards Full Implementation of the UN Climate Change Convention (2011) accessed 17 November 2013. 11 UNFCCC, The Doha Climate Gateway (2012) accessed 17 November 2013. 12 UNFCCC, Warsaw Outcomes (2013) accessed 19 April 2014. 13 Paris Agreement to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (2015), opened for signature 22 April 2016, FCCC/CP/2015/L.9 (not yet in force) (‘Paris Agreement’). 14 Although most of these outcomes are not legally binding, these achievements advanced the process of the global joint efforts effectively and to some extent could be deemed as ‘a more elaborate and extended version of the 1992 UNFCCC’. Michael Grubb, ‘Cancun: the Art of the Possible’ (2011) 11(2) Climate Policy 847, 847. See also Navroz K. Dubash and Lavanya Rajamani, ‘Beyond Copenhagen: Next Steps’ (2010) 10(6) Climate Policy 593, 593. 15 The specific data on GHG emissions from international shipping is provided at 1.2.2.2 of this chapter.