Planetary Boundaries And International Environmental Law: Towards Earth System Governance

Abstract

International Environmental Law stands at a crossroad, where its basic ideas and principles are massively coming at odds with the depth and demand of universal environmental catastrophe. Greatly based upon notions of state control, assent, and fragmented international agreement, the discipline has failed to respond to massive environmental degradation and biodiversity failure. The formation of the scientific notion of the ecological boundaries and limits has elevated the constraint by introducing a bunch of environmental thresholds and limits within which the humankind can remain secure. Developed by the Stockholm Resilience Centre, this framework uncovers crucial biodiversity dynamics like the massive ecological destruction, ecological threshold, poor land usage and change, and bio-geochemical cycles and hence introduces a novice standard beyond which the irreparable environmental damage sharply increases and spikes. While this model has gained impeccable speed and admiration among scientific and policy stakeholders, its ethical interpretation and application for international law remains questionable. This paper argues that adopting environmental limits within the scope and ambit of international environmental law calls for a thorough transformation from fragmented governance towards an obligatory structure of earth system governance.