Personally, as an attorney I have  been overwhelmed by Law of Injunctions in environmental cases. On preliminary research I was surprised to read the volume of opinions and treatises on how injunctions relating to environment and natural resources management be decided by courts. This paper was published in the Atiner Journal of Law in January 2021.   I am now posting a version of the paper with recent updates on the topic of natural capital accounting which is essential as a concept that can serve jurists as an aid to decide injunction pleas  filed in public interest. 

Hypothesizing A New Standard for Environmental Injunctions.

 

F.Sherwood Rowland  while accepting the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in the year 1995 made a profound statement pointing out our complacency in tackling global warming and climate change impacts. He stated thus “What is the use of having developed a science well enough to make predictions if, in the end, all we’re willing to do is stand around and wait for them to come true?”  As early as 1979 the then President of United States Jimmy Carter was presented with a report by the National Academy of Sciences that investigated the contention whether human activities  might have an adverse impact on the climate of the world and predicted a doubling of CO₂ in the atmosphere that could  rise global temperatures to about 3 degrees Celsius. The report failed to have the necessary impact on international community to act decisively and wisely on the ways of nature reacting to callous human actions in commercial ventures. Business communities were more concerned about the decrease in profits if they were compelled to limit fossil fuel emissions in their business activities and the costs of changing their business-as-usual models to more sustainable ones. The denial by business and finance communities on climate change in the early 80s and 90s was the biggest obstacle to climate action. The communities ensured that their thoughts on climate change  reached  the public by using blatantly false campaigns and bought out expertise,  distracting them from gaining scientific awareness on the consequences of activities fueled by fossil-fuels. The markets that were indicators of the state of economy were not offered  the necessary incentives to absorb the cost of negative externalities  and change their business mechanisms. Instead the business and finance communities chose to look the other way when scientific consensus on climate change impact was gaining traction. This lack of oversight has led to increase in climate related poverty and environmental refugees. I am presenting here a working paper that calls for a paradigm shift in designing the business and human rights treaty, currently under negotiation, that aims to hold global Transnational corporations accountable for current state of our climate and weather patterns.

 

 

 A Climate Treaty under the regime of International Poverty Law.