International Law Perspective on Environmental Regulation & Economy

This report analyzes the complex relationship between environmental regulation and economic development, focusing on the Principle of Common but Differentiated Responsibility (CBDR) within the framework of international environmental law. It examines the historical context of international environmental law, dividing it into traditional, modern, and post-modern eras, and discusses the evolving understanding of the interplay between environmentalism and economic growth. The report delves into the definition, origins, and objectives of CBDR, highlighting its application in key international instruments such as the Rio Declaration, Vienna Convention, Montreal Protocol, Kyoto Protocol, Paris Agreement, and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It further explores the implementation of the CBDR principle, addressing lessons learned, challenges faced by both developed and developing countries, and ongoing conflicts and disagreements. The report concludes by emphasizing the need for future actions to address biases in environmental laws and promote sustainable development.

Running head: ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATION AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Environmental regulation and economic development
Name of the student
Name of the University
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1ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATION AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Executive summary:
It has been seen for the last few decades that environmental management and regulations are
becoming one of the most important issues. With the enhancing awareness related to the
relation between climate change and natural disasters, environmental regulation is becoming
very important topic for each companies and governments, worldwide. This report is meant
to analyse the international law and the environment through analyzing the practical and legal
issues of the Principle of Common but Differentiated Responsibility. The report has found
that with ever rising pressure from the world bodies and international treaties it has become
evident for the developing nations to invest more in the eco friendly technologies at the cost
of the economic growth. However, it has not yet been clear to which extent the association
between international law and environment persist. Additionally, the magnitude of the
economic impact by the environmental laws needs to be researched extensively to trace the
relation between international law and environment. To conclude, the report has provided
ideas regarding what more need to be done in future in order to reduce the biasness of the
environmental laws.

2ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATION AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................3
Background of International Environmental Law:....................................................................4
Principle of common but differentiated responsibility:.............................................................5
Definition:..............................................................................................................................5
Origins:...................................................................................................................................6
Objectives:..............................................................................................................................7
Application of the principle in International Environmental Instruments and obligations for
nations:.......................................................................................................................................7
The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development:......................................................7
Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer:..................................................8
Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer (1987):..............................9
Kyoto Protocol, 1997:............................................................................................................9
Paris Agreement (2015):......................................................................................................10
Stockholm Declaration (1972):............................................................................................11
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) 1992:.................12
Implementation of CBDR principle: Lessons and Challenges:...............................................13
Conflicts and disagreements:...............................................................................................13
Measuring emissions and grouping of nations:........................................................................14
Challenges for developed countries:....................................................................................15
Challenges for developing countries:...................................................................................15
Conclusion:..............................................................................................................................17
Bibliography:............................................................................................................................18

3ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATION AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Introduction:
Environmental policy is one of the contentious and rancorous factors that have been
under continuous debate since decade. There has been various researches regarding the
association between the environmental law and economic development, however most of
them has failed to judge the level of association properly. According to the various
researchers, there is high level of association between these two variables, where as some
researches contradicts the very idea. Researchers like Chong, Qin and Xinyue, argues that
either through direct or in the indirect way environmental laws aids the economy to avail
sustainability and eco friendly growth1. When it comes to the economic development process
of various countries, then according to the developed nations, economic growth comes at an
expense of environment.
Across the world, there is an identification that the environmental condition is
decreasing and hence, it needs special attention and also some legal protections. Thus, most
of the countries, both developed as well as developing one, are coming together to formulate
some protocols since 1960s to protect the environment, worldwide. This report is meant to
analyse the international law and the environment through analyzing the practical and legal
issues of the Principle of Common but Differentiated Responsibility. The chief focus of this
paper is to look at instruments derived from the principle that have generated based on those
chief negotiated instruments. Hence, this paper intends to discuss about the implementation
of those principles in the selected instruments and some other legal and practical issues that
prevent the growth of those agreements.
1 Zhaohui Chong, Chenglin Qin and Xinyue Ye, 'Environmental Regulation, Economic Network And
Sustainable Growth Of Urban Agglomerations In China' (2016) 8 Sustainability.

4ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATION AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Background of International Environmental Law:
International Environmental Law (IEL) states about the controlling of pollution and
wastage of natural resources under the concept of sustainable development2. IEM is a part of
public international law, an institution of law, which different states have created to supervise
various inter-state related problems. IEL is a broad concept that deals with biodiversity,
ozone depletion, population, pollutions related to air, land, water, and nuclear damage and so
on that relate with nature or climate. International environmental law has been evaluated
since 1970 and can be divided chiefly into three phases, viz., traditional era, modern era and
post-modern era.
Environmentalism and economic growth 1970 – 1989:
According to the Cleveland, with rise in production and consumption, higher level of
inputs will be required and it will lead to exploitation of natural resources. During this period
it has been observed that gross product is increased by 0.2% on average with the increase in
environmental regulation3. On the other hand, researchers argue that, though there were rise
in gross production after implying the environmental laws during initial period, however it is
affecting the world economy nowadays. Researches during this period argues that it has been
found that excessive amount of industrialisation during the 1970 caused increased amount of
waste that lead to diminishing quality of environment. Besides this, it has diminished the
sustainability of biosphere, thus stringent environmental laws came in.
Environmentalism and economic growth 1992 – 2008:
During this period environmental degradation was at its peak due to lack of confined
and worldwide framework for environmental laws. Greenhouse gas emission was affecting
2 Gonzalez CG. Bridging the North-South Divide: International Environmental Law in the Anthropocene. Pace Envtl. L.
Rev.. 2015;32:407.
3 Wayne B Gray, Economic Costs And Consequences Of Environmental Regulation (Taylor and Francis 2018).

5ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATION AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
the whole world’s economy and reducing the same by 3% annually4. Besides this, due to rise
in greenhouse gas emission water level has also been raising leading to loss of resource like
land and capital. Thus UNFCC took ratifying act through Kyoto protocol and enacted the
participating countries to reduce the greenhouse gas emission to a certain level for better
sustainability and higher growth.
Environmentalism and economic growth 2008 – Present day:
In recent days environmental factors are taken as one of the key element for the
production. Firms are aimed to reduce their level of carbon emission through utilising the
newer and greener technologies. In the case of developed nations, environmental laws are
presently acting as the tool to restrict the growth of the developing nations, due to the fact the
developing nations lack in technology and resource. Thus, according to the Robert V Percival
and others, recent stringent environmental laws are aimed to reduce the carbon emission level
and restrict the environmental degradation to a great extend at a cost of slower growth of the
developing nations5.
Principle of common but differentiated responsibility:
Definition:
Principle of common but differentiated responsibility has occurred in Rio de Janeiro,
1992. This is the first global legal instrument for addressing climate change and the most
comprehensive global attempt for addressing negative effects on the global environment.
According to this principle, all the nations need to possess shared obligation for addressing
environmental destruction; however, it denies identical responsibility of all nations in relation
to environmental protection6. The principle of CBDR has remained the key factor for many
negotiated instruments. The principle has tried to emphasize the collective responsibility of
4 David J. Long and Matthew Collins, 'Quantifying Global Climate Feedbacks, Responses And Forcing Under
Abrupt And Gradual CO2 Forcing' (2013) 41 Climate Dynamics.
5 Robert V Percival and others, Environmental Regulation.
6 Power T, Economic Development And Environmental Protection (Taylor and Francis 2015)

6ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATION AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
all countries worldwide, for protecting of the environment by controlling the emissions of
green house gasses7. It also considers the different capacity of developed and developing
countries for dealing with various issues, which are related to protect the environment based
on technological and financial capabilities.
Origins:
CBDR is considered worldwide, that greenhouse gasses are the main factors for
changing climate, which is facing by all countries, at present. This is becoming a serious
issue as many countries are facing serious problems like droughts, floods, land degradation,
heat waves and tropical cyclone that can increase the mortality rate as decrease the food
security among many courtiers8. Hence, the international community meets on a regular basis
to agree on fundamental instruments for ensuring that all countries are participating to solve
this problem. During the first Rio Earth Summit in 1992, CBDR was granted by the
international governments, which entails that in case of global environmental degradation,
different states has common but differentiated responsibilities. Though each country is
responsible for the environmental degradation, however different states have different
abilities to contribute in the project, which aims to gauge the deteriorating environmental
condition. However, this summit has received immense criticism from worldwide nations.
This is because the world could not have two separate categories of nations having various
responsibilities. The nations need to follow segregation of a continuum, in which they are
needed to act vigorously based on their own circumstances. Thus, common responsibility
needs to be emphasised all the nations rather than a group of nations taking more dominant
responsibility.
7 Ari I, Sari R. Developing CBDR-RC Indices for Fair Allocation of Emission Reduction Responsibilities and Capabilities
across Countries. Cogent Environmental Science. 2017 Dec 23:1420365.
8 Vetter SH, Sapkota TB, Hillier J, Stirling CM, Macdiarmid JI, Aleksandrowicz L, Green R, Joy EJ, Dangour AD, Smith P.
Greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural food production to supply Indian diets: implications for climate change
mitigation. Agriculture, ecosystems & environment. 2017 Jan 16;237:234-41.

7ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATION AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Objectives:
The principle of CBDR has two fundamental objectives. The first objective states
about the common responsibility of a nation for the protecting entire environment or a
segment of it, at the international, state or regional levels9. The second objective talks about
various circumstances, regarding contribution of each country for evaluating some
environmental issues and its ability to protect for reducing and controlling the threat in near
future.
Application of the principle in International Environmental Instruments and
obligations for nations:
The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development:
The Rio Declaration, a short document, was produced at the “Conference on
Environment and Development” (UNCED) or the Earth Summit in 199210. This declaration
had 27 principles for controlling countries regarding sustainable development in future and
over 170 countries signed that. To deal with sustainable development, those 27 principles
were constructed based on different aspects of environmental issues11.
The first principle had considered human beings as the chief concern for sustainable
development to give them a productive and healthy life, while the second law was based on
some principles of international law and the Charter of the United Nations. According to that
law, a nation could fully utilize its resources by implementing their excusive environmental
and developmental policies, where they could not hamper other country’s environment. This
9 Dubash NK. Safeguarding development and limiting vulnerability: India's stakes in the Paris Agreement. Wiley
Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change. 2017 Mar 1;8(2).
10 Ludwig T. The Key to Engaging with the SDGs: Utilizing Rio Principle 10 to Succeessfully Implement the UN
Sustainable Development Goals. Sustainable Development Law & Policy. 2017;16(2):7.
11 Nilsson M, Griggs D, Visbeck M, Ringler C, McCollum D. A framework for understanding Sustainable Development
Goal Interactions. A Guide to SDG Interactions: From Science to Implementation. 2017.

8ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATION AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
principle has two-facet elements. Initially it states about the common responsibility, that is,
all countries need to co-operate to prevent the environmental degradation and reduction of
green house gas emissions and on the other side it argues for shared responsibility to reduce
the carbon emission. With the Rio decleration came the principal of CBDR, which argues that
though all the countries are responsible for the emission, however different countries need to
take different amount of responsibility to gauge the situation depending upon their capability.
This
Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer:
This multilateral environment based agreement, which was agreed on 1985 at the
Vienna Conference, was actively implemented in 1988. This treat that had earned huge
success, was signed by 197 countries, mainly members of all United Nations and the
European Union12.
The chief purpose of this treaty was to prevent the ozone layer with international
efforts by implementing research, systematic observations and information exchange
regarding the human activities that could affect this layer. Moreover, according to this treaty,
member countries could adopt different administrative measures legislative to protect those
activities, which had negative implications of this ozone layer13. This protocol tried to
germinate the CBDR through shared responsibility framework for mitigating the the issue of
depleting ozine layer, however failed to do so. Instead of taking any concrete actions for
controlling the ozone layer, countries had agreed the Montreal Protocol to advance the goal
of protecting the ozone layer.
12 Bahareh A, Seyed AP, Roshandel R, Zare A. International convention to decrease conflict between energy supply and
environmental protection. Ukrainian Journal of Ecology. 2018 Mar 1;8(1):608-18.
13 Houser D, Libecap GD. Public Choice Issues in International Collective Action: Global Warming Regulation.
InExplorations in Public Sector Economics 2017 (pp. 13-34). Springer, Cham.

9ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATION AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Additionaly, the treaty had some loopholes, for instance, lack of legal bindings to
control the usage of CFCs and some important chemicals that could deplete ozone, for
instance, chlorine nitrate (CIONO2) and hydrogen chloride (HCI)14.
Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer (1987):
This international treaty was based on ozone layer to prevent the production of some
components that hamper the ozone layer. This treaty was agreed in 1987 and was come into
action in 198915. After practically implementing this treaty, the world was facing a positive
outcome, for instance, the ozone hole, which had been observed in Antarctica, is recovering
slowly. As the agreement was successfully adopted by all countries through shared
responsibility it had become a well-known example of international co-operation.
This treaty was formed around various groups of halogenated hydrocarbons that
exhaust ozone layers. Hence, this Montreal Protocol controlled those ozone-depleting
materials that chiefly contained bromine and chlorine. However, there were some other
harmful materials, for instance, nitrous oxide (N2O), which were not controlled by this
protocol16. According to this treaty, each group of ozone-depleting materials needed to
maintain a timetable above which production of those materials should be eliminated.
Kyoto Protocol, 1997:
The Kyoto Protocol was also an international agreement, which was related to the
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate change. In 1997, this protocol was
adopted in Japan and has come into action in 2005. At present, 192 parties are following this
protocol. This agreement engages its member countries to set an international target for
controlling emissions. As developed countries are the chief producers of green house gases
14 Young OR, Onoda M. Satellite Earth Observations in Environmental Problem-Solving. InSatellite Earth Observations and
Their Impact on Society and Policy 2017 (pp. 3-27). Springer, Singapore.
15 Chipperfield MP, Dhomse SS, Feng W, McKenzie RL, Velders GJ, Pyle JA. Quantifying the ozone and ultraviolet
benefits already achieved by the Montreal Protocol. Nature communications. 2015 May 26;6:7233.
16 Hegglin MI, Fahey DW, McFarland M, Montzka SA, Nash ER. Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion: 2014-Twenty
Questions and Answers About the Ozone Layer: 2014 Update.

10ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATION AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
due to their developed industrial sectors, which are operating for 150 years, this protocol has
become very expensive for those countries, based on the principle “Common But
Differentiated Responsibilities”. This protocol has followed some steps to monitor on
emission targets, for instance, by maintaining registry systems, reporting, compliance,
adaption and adaption funds, parties have maintained their emissions records.
The Kyoto protocol has huge importance as it helps to stabilize the amount of
greenhouse gases at international level by reducing its emissions. In addition to this, the
treaty has provided a structure for the next international agreement, based on climate change.
Paris Agreement (2015):
The Paris Agreement was adopted by various countries to control climate change at
the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) of the United Nations Climate Change Conference
(UNCCC) in 201517. Under this agreement, each plans, determines and regulates reports of
their own contribution to mitigate global warming, which supports the CBDR principal.
Hence, without any specific mechanism, the country needs to maintain some specific target
within some specific date depending upon their capability. As the shared responsibility of
carbon emission France, at the same year, has decided to ban all vehicles that use petrol and
diesel under its five years plan and the country has announced about the reduction of coal for
electricity production after 202218.
Under the purview of CBDR, Article 2, of Paris agreement mentioned three aims of
described by the UNFCCC that each member countries need to follow. Firstly, all parties of
this agreement are trying to control the increasing temperature above preindustrial level of
the world below 2o C and to maintain this further at 1.5o C for controlling the increasing
17 Bodansky D. The Paris climate change agreement: a new hope?. American Journal of International Law. 2016
Apr;110(2):288-319.
18 Rogelj J, Den Elzen M, Höhne N, Fransen T, Fekete H, Winkler H, Schaeffer R, Sha F, Riahi K, Meinshausen M. Paris
Agreement climate proposals need a boost to keep warming well below 2 C. Nature. 2016 Jun;534(7609):631.

11ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATION AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
temperature19. Secondly, countries need to adopt the ability to sustain within the negative
impacts regarding climate change by controlling climate flexibility and by maintaining low
level of greenhouse gas emissions in such a way that it cannot hamper the food production.
Thirdly, the agreement tries to make consistent flows of finance for developing various
methods to control the emission of greenhouse gases and to develop climate flexibility. This
highlights that, after almost three decade of CBDR, it really has came into existence, where
different countries have to take different responsibility depending upon their ability.
Stockholm Declaration (1972):
In 1968, the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) has received an
idea from Sweden to arrange a world conference based on the inter relation between human
and environment. In 1972, this conference was held in Stockholm of Sweden where 113
countries along with 400 non-government organizations and 1500 journalists had
participated20. This conference was one of the major one of the UN that focused on
environmental issues. This meeting, which took the first initiative toward sustainability
revolution, had set up 26 principles and an action plan that had 109 recommendations21.
The principle theme of that conference was to consider the relation between
environmental and human being with huge importance and to achieve some international and
common principles for the purpose of environmental protection22. This declaration also gave
huge importance on enrichment and preservation of human environment.
19 Dimitrov RS. The Paris agreement on climate change: Behind closed doors. Global Environmental Politics. 2016
Aug;16(3):1-1.
20 Bowman M. 5 International North Pacific Fisheries Convention (9 May 1952, 205 UNTS 79). 6 Sands & Peel (n 1 above) 26. 7 LB Sohn
‘The Stockholm Declaration on the Human Environment’(1973) 14 Harvard International Law Review 423; P Birnie et al International law
and the environment (3rd edn 2009) 48. The implementation of international law in Germany and South Africa. 2015:240.
21 Hashim KS, Mohamed AH, Redza HZ. Developing a waste minimization awareness model through community based movement: A case
study of the IIUM Green Team. Geografia-Malaysian Journal of Society and Space. 2017 Sep 18;8(5).
22 Leary DK. International Environmental Law, Sustainable Generation of Energy from the Ocean and Small Island Developing States in
the Pacific. Sustainable Ocean Resource Governance: Deep Sea Mining, Marine Energy and Submarine Cables. 2018 Feb 5:84.