The No-Harm Rule: A Potential Game Changer For International Climate Change Governance?

Abstract

Climate change is presenting an existential threat to our world as we know it. Yet, the international community has thus far failed to enact adequate climate policies to combat this threat. This paper explores how a rule of international environmental law, the no-harm rule, could strengthen the international climate change response. It argues that the no-harm rule has a critical role to play in combatting dangerous anthropogenic climate change by demanding individual state responsibility for climate change-related damages. This is particularly so considering the inadequacies of current collective efforts being made under the UNFCCC framework, as well as the threat posed by the possible deployment of geoengineering technologies. Acknowledging that there are many challenges in applying the no-harm rule in the climate change context – namely, those of proving causation of harm, determining remedial obligations, and enforcing the rule – this paper contends that these challenges are surmountable, and indeed should be surmounted for the no-harm rule to fulfil its potential as a game changer in the international climate change regime.