Friend or foe? International environmental law and its structural complicity in the Anthropocene’s climate injustices

• Main Authors: Louis J. Kotzé, Louise Du Toit, Duncan French
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oñati International Institute for the Sociology of Law 2021-02-01
• Series: Oñati Socio-Legal Series
• Subjects: international environmental law; anthropocene; climate change; climate injustice; derecho ambiental internacional; antropoceno; cambio climático; injusticia climática
• Online Access: http://opo.iisj.net/index.php/osls/article/view/1213

In this paper, we focus on the <em>structural complicity</em> of international environmental law (IEL) in causing and exacerbating climate injustices. We aim to show that although the intentions behind IEL may be well-meaning, it often inadvertently, but also deliberately at times, plays a role in creating, sustaining and exacerbating the many paradigms that drive climate injustice in the Anthropocene. We focus on three aspects: IEL&rsquo;s neoliberal anthropocentrism; its entanglement with (neo)colonialism; and its entrenchment of the sovereign right to exploit energy resources. We conclude with a call for thoroughgoing, and urgent, reform of IEL.<br /><br /> En este art&iacute;culo, nos centramos en la <em>complicidad estructural </em>del derecho ambiental internacional (DAI) en el origen y la exacerbaci&oacute;n de injusticias clim&aacute;ticas. Pretendemos mostrar que, pese a que las intenciones detr&aacute;s del DAI puedan ser buenas, frecuentemente de forma inadvertida, pero a veces tambi&eacute;n deliberadamente, desempe&ntilde;a un papel en el origen, el mantenimiento y el agravamiento de muchos paradigmas que dirigen la injusticia clim&aacute;tica en el Antropoceno. Nos centramos en tres aspectos: el antropocentrismo neoliberal del DAI; su implicaci&oacute;n con el (neo)colonialismo; y su reforzamiento del derecho soberano a explotar recursos energ&eacute;ticos. Concluimos con una llamada a una reforma integral y urgente del DAI.<br /><br /> <strong>Available from:</strong> <a href="https://doi.org/10.35295/osls.iisl/0000-0000-0000-1140" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.35295/osls.iisl/0000-0000-0000-1140</a>