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, climate change has been reshaping the way that people think about themselves, about their societies and about humanity’s place on earth.2 Greenhouse gas (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)
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���7 | doi ��.��63/9789004329317_002 2 chapter 1 the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)6 and its Kyoto Protocol 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 Paris Agreement 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)