Dreaming of Paris: The prospects of enforcing the Paris Agreement through international arbitration

Abstract

The Paris Agreement is the most comprehensive climate change accord ever reached, with 197 states pledging to both mitigate and adapt in order to ensure a safe climate future. The implementation phase of the Agreement begins in 2020, however, unlike its predecessor, the Kyoto Protocol, it does yet not have an enforcement mechanism.

This paper examines different methods and mechanisms of enforcement in international environmental law and how these may operate as a means of enforcing the Paris Agreement. This research intends to show that international arbitration could be the best method to fill the lacuna in enforcement. As such, it also explores legal tools that could be used to adopt of arbitration under the Paris Agreement and proposes a potential roadmap for this to occur.