Originally from Alternatives to the High Cost of Litigation

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In December 2015, 196 nations met to discuss the critical issue of climate change and to negotiate an agreement which culminated in the Paris Agreement Under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, best known as the Paris Agreement, a treaty in which countries agreed to maintain global temperature rise below 2oC in relation to pre-industrial levels and make efforts to limit it to 1.5°C.

The agreement is available on the United Nations’ climate change website at https://bit.ly/3mgxtKE (direct link to text at bit.ly/3UmbAWX).

The Paris Agreement, like other United Nations treaties, including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC; text available at https://bit.ly/3ZO4rjl) and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS; text available at bit.ly/3meujHk), contains an arbitration provision. Climate change and sustainability disputes: International arbitration perspectives, Norton Rose Fulbright US LLP (July 2021) (available at http://bit.ly/3UdsU0p).

Article 24 of the Paris Agreement states the dispute settlement clause in UNFCCC Article 14 is applicable to the Paris Agreement. Under UNFCCC Article 14(2), parties can use arbitration to resolve interstate disputes arising out of the breach of its provisions in accordance with procedures adopted by the Conference of the Parties (COP) as soon as practicable, in an annex on arbitration. Pamela McDonald, “Resolving climate change disputes through arbitration,” Pinsent Masons (Mar. 31, 2021) (available at http://bit.ly/40MDQoh).