Abstract
The paper is divided in three parts. In the first one, the climate change issue is presented and a brief analysis of the major international treaties on climate change is provided. A special focus is placed on the concept of the combination between mitigation and adaptation activities which is required to deal effectively with climate change.
The second part deals with the link between climate change and environmental security, stressing in particular the contribution that climate change may give to worsen the already occurring environmental crisis at a global level, acting as a “threat multiplier”. In order to prevent the effect of such a possible combined negative effect of climate change and environmental security, a serious and sharp series of climate change mitigation and adaptation activities must be performed in the years to come in an even more constant and incisive way compared to the last two decades.
The third part addresses more specifically the issue of how to reduce environmental security risks in SEE through the implementation of climate change treaties. In such a context, in particular, two specific scenarios are proposed and analysed.
Firstly, under option A, the simpler possibility for SEE countries to implement the existing major climate change treaties, namely the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol, is considered. The formal implementation of such treaties should be accompanied by the development of appropriate national mitigation and adaptation policies to effectively tackle climate change and prevent climate change related risks. Depending on the seriousness and effectiveness of such national policies, the outcomes of the domestic actions in each of the SEE countries may finally prove more or less successful.
Secondly, under option B, a more sophisticated integrated approach is proposed for the SEE countries, based on the track indicated by the 2005 Energy Community South East Europe Treaty (ECSEE Treaty), which aims inter alia at reducing environmental risks by establishing a single and comprehensive regulatory framework for trading energy across SEE. Such a treaty imposes to the contracting parties, as a prerequisite for its effective enforcement, the implementation of the most relevant acquis communautaire in the environmental, energy and competition fields. Moreover, it calls for the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, thus linking within a broad comprehensive legal framework the major climate change, environmental, energy and competition issues in an integrated way.
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- 1.
The earth’s average temperature is at the moment around 14°C. If the natural greenhouse effect did not exist, the average temperature would be around minus 19°C.
- 2.
At present, the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is about 385 ppm. Before the industrialisation period it was about 280 ppm.
- 3.
For instance, according to the 2007 IPCC Report, the earth’s average temperature has risen by 0.74 degrees in the period from 1906 to 2005. The warming is stronger over land areas than over the sea, and accordingly it is strongest in the north. At the same time occurrences of heat waves and violent downpours have also increased, the oceans have risen, and the ice at the world’s poles and on its mountains has begun to melt.
- 4.
See 2007 IPCC Report, Synthesis Report, p. 7 ff.
- 5.
- 6.
See Resolution United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) 43/53 (1988).
- 7.
See the IPCC reports on the web site http://www.ipcc.ch.
- 8.
See Resolution United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) 43/212 (1990).
- 9.
See UN Framework Convention on climate change (UNFCCC), New York (1992), in International Legal Materials, vol. 31 (1992), p. 849 or in the web site http://www.unfccc.int.
- 10.
Updated 1 January 2010 (see http://www.unfccc.int).
- 11.
- 12.
See article 4(1)(a) UNFCCC on inventories and 4(1)(b) on national programmes.
- 13.
See Annex B of the Kyoto Protocol.
- 14.
The EU Burden Sharing Agreement reached within the European Council of 16–17 June 1998 (EC Council Conclusions DOC 9702/98 of 19 June 1998) was then included in the EC Council Decision 2002/358 of 25 April 2002 concerning the approval, on behalf of the European Community, of the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the joint fulfilment of commitments thereunder (OJ L130, 15 May 2002, p. 1).
- 15.
Updated 1 January 2010 (see http://www.unfccc.int).
- 16.
On the opportunities arising from the use of the flexibility mechanisms and in particular from the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), with a particular focus on the Western Balkan countries, see Montini 2010.
- 17.
See Stern (2007).
- 18.
See United Nations, Report of the Secretary General, A/64/350, 11 September 2009.
- 19.
See UN General Assembly Resolution A/RES/63/281, 11 June 2009.
- 20.
Between 1990 and 2003, GHG emissions in SEE increased by about 2% after a strong decrease during the first half of the 1990s. Emissions from SEE in 2004 were 599 Mtonnes (source: Europe’s Environment – the Fourth Assessment by European Environmental Agency, Copenhagen, 2007).
- 21.
See 2005 Energy Community South East Europe Treaty (ECSEE Treaty) or simply Energy Community Treaty, published in EU OJ L 198/18 of 20 July 2006. See also http://www.energy-community.org.
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Documents
IPCC Fourth Assessment Report (2007), http://www.ipcc.ch
Resolution United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) 43/53 (1988)
Resolution United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) 43/212 (1990)
United Nations, Report of the Secretary General, A/64/350, 11 September 2009
UN General Assembly Resolution A/RES/63/281, 11 June 2009
UN Framework Convention on climate change (UNFCCC), New York 1992, in International Legal Materials, vol. 31 (1992), p. 849 or in the web site http://www.unfccc.int
Energy Community South East Europe Treaty (ECSEE Treaty) (more simply Energy Community Treaty), published in EU OJ L 198/18 of 20 July 2006
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Montini, M. (2011). The Impact of International Treaties on Climate Change in SEE Countries. In: Montini, M., Bogdanovic, S. (eds) Environmental Security in South-Eastern Europe. NATO Science for Peace and Security Series C: Environmental Security. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0228-8_5
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