Md Waliul Hasanat Soft-law Cooperation in International Law The Arctic Council’s Efforts to Address Climate Change Academic Dissertation to be publicly defendedunder permission of the Faculty of Law at the University of Lapland in Lecture hall 2 on Tuesday 4th of September 2012 at 12 o’clock Acta Electronica Universitatis Lapponiensis 103 University of Lapland Faculty of Law Copyright: Md Waliul Hasanat Distributor: Lapland University Press P.O. Box 8123 FI-96101 Rovaniemi tel. + 358 (0)40-821 4242 , fax + 358 16 362 932 [email protected] www.ulapland.fi /lup Paperback ISBN 978-952-484-560-1 ISSN 0788-7604 PDF ISBN 978-952-484-581-6 ISSN 1796-6310 To my parents… TABLE OF CONTENTS The page numbers in chapters 2-5 correspond with the numbering of published articles as appeared in scientific journals. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ........................................................................... VIII LIST OF ACRONYMS ................................................................................... XI 1: INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................ 1 1. GENERAL BACKGROUND ...................................................................... 1 1.1. Introduction ..................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Global Warming ............................................................................................. 10 1.3 Climate Change .............................................................................................. 12 1.4 Human Activity and Climate Change ............................................................. 14 1.5 Climate Change Regime ................................................................................. 17 1.6 The Relevance of the Arctic With Respect to Climate Change ....................... 28 1.7 Arctic-Wide State Cooperation in Combating Climate Change ..................... 32 2. APPROACH OF THE THESIS ................................................................. 35 3. SCOPE AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY ............................................ 41 4. METHODOLOGY OF THE STUDY .......................................................... 41 5. STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS ................................................................ 42 2: DEFINITIONAL CONSTRAINTS REGARDING SOFT LAW ....................... 45 ‘DEFINITIONAL CONSTRAINTS REGARDING SOFT LAW’ 3 AALCO QUARTERLY BULLETIN (2007), PP. 8-32. 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................. 8 2. WHAT IS SOFT LAW? .................................................................................................. 10 A. Treaties ................................................................................................................ 11 B. Customary International Law .............................................................................. 12 3. IDENTIFICATION OF SOFT LAW .................................................................................... 14 4. CONSEQUENCES OF SOFT LAW .................................................................................... 16 5. PERMANENT COOPERATION CREATED BY SOFT-LAW PROCESS .................................. 19 A. The Arctic Council .............................................................................................. 19 B. The Barents Euro-Arctic Council ....................................................................... 21 C. The Northern Forum ........................................................................................... 23 D. South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation ............................................ 25 6. REASONS UNDERLYING THE CREATION OF SOFT LAW ................................................ 29 7 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................ 31 3: TOWARDS MODEL ARCTIC-WIDE ENVIRONMENTAL COOPERATION COMBATING CLIMATE CHANGE ............................................................... 72 iii ‘TOWARDS MODEL ARCTIC-WIDE ENVIRONMENTAL COOPERATION COMBATING CLIMATE CHANGE’, 20 YEARBOOK OF INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL LAW (2009), PP. 122-157. I. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 122 II. HISTORY OF THE ARCTIC COOPERATION ............................................................... 124 1. The Cooperation of the AEPS ........................................................................ 124 2. Formation of the Arctic Council ..................................................................... 125 III. FUNCTIONING SYSTEM OF THE COOPERATION ....................................................... 127 1. Organizational Framework ............................................................................... 127 A. Members .................................................................................................... 127 B. Permanent Participants ............................................................................... 128 C. Observers ................................................................................................... 129 2. Operational Framework .................................................................................... 130 A. SAOs ........................................................................................................ 130 B. Working Groups ......................................................................................... 131 (i) AMAP .................................................................................................. 131 (ii) PAME ................................................................................................ 133 (iii) EPPR ................................................................................................. 134 (iv) CAFF................................................................................................. 135 (v) SDWG ................................................................................................ 136 (vi) ACAP ................................................................................................ 137 C. The Secretariat ........................................................................................... 138 IV. THE ISSUE OF CLIMATE CHANGE IN ARCTIC COOPERATION .................................. 139 1. The Issue of Climate Change under the AEPS ............................................... 139 2. The Issue of Climate Change under the Arctic Council ................................... 140 V. ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE COOPERATION WITH RESPECT TO CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE ARCTIC ................................................................................................................. 144 VI. MAIN SHORTCOMINGS OF THE COOPERATION IN ADDRESSING ARCTIC CLIMATE CHANGE ....................................................................................................................... 147 1. Soft Law Character ......................................................................................... 147 2. Lack of Permanent Secretariat ........................................................................ 147 3. Ineffective Funding Mechanism ..................................................................... 148 4. Poor Coordination with Respect to Working Groups ..................................... 148 5. Problems Concerning National Delegates ...................................................... 149 6. Lack of Realization of Arctic Needs at the National Level ............................ 149 7. Members’ Lack of Confidence in the Cooperation ........................................ 149 8. Disagreements among the Members ............................................................... 150 9. Other Deficiencies of the Cooperation ........................................................... 150 VII. PROPOSAL FOR A MODEL COOPERATION ADDRESSING CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE ARCTIC ........................................................................................................................ 150 1. Introduction ..................................................................................................... 150 2. Reasons of Reforming the Cooperation .......................................................... 151 3. Existing Proposals Regarding the Reform of the Cooperation ....................... 152 VIII. CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................... 155 iv 4: COOPERATION IN THE BARENTS EURO-ARCTIC REGION IN THE LIGHT OF INTERNATIONAL LAW ............................................................ 111 ‘COOPERATION IN THE BARENTS EURO-ARCTIC REGION IN THE LIGHT OF INTERNATIONAL LAW’, 2 THE YEARBOOK OF POLAR LAW (2010), PP. 279-309. 1. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................... 279 2. THE ORGANISATIONAL FRAMEWORK OF THE COOPERATION .................................... 281 2.1. The Barents Euro-Arctic Council ................................................................... 282 2.1.1 . Members .................................................................................................. 282 2.1.2. Observers .................................................................................................. 284 2.1.3. Committee of Senior Officials .................................................................