Will International Law Save Us from Climate Disasters?

Michael B. Gerrard, Columbia Law School

Abstract

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was adopted in 1992 with the objective of preventing dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system. Thus, one of its chief purposes is to prevent the sort of natural disasters that could be caused or worsened by climate change. The principal instrument to achieve this objective was the Kyoto Protocol of 1997, which aimed to reduce global emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) by 2008–2012 to 5% below their 1990 levels. The Kyoto Protocol has failed; emissions are instead about 40% higher than 1990 levels.