Environmental Sovereignty and Climate Justice: A Legal and Normative Perspective

This dissertation explores how the concept of environmental sovereignty fits into the climate justice paradigm in the structure of the international climate regime, with special consideration of how state sovereignty complicates the international fight against climate change. Environmental sovereignty had been used to permit states to supreme power over their domestic natural resources and environmental regulations. This principle is not fully applicable in the current age of climate change since environmental problems are international. As the central focus of the study, the research considers the Paris Agreement and seeks to explain how the agreement seeks to balance the sovereignty of nations, with the call for collective action by the international community in the fight against climate change. In specific, the study focuses on the divide between the first and third world nations, the principle of CBDR – common but differentiated responsibilities whereby the higher emission and capability countries have more responsibilities than the developing nations. Furthermore, the dissertation analyses climate litigation as an advocacy strategy, and exemplify how legal cases erode sovereignty in the framework of climate change treaty obligations. By using dogmatic legal writing and examples of cases, the dissertation provides prescriptive lessons on sovereignty and the imperative of climate justice.