Academic Scientific JournalsFlexibility of the Principle of Sustainable Development in the Context of Adaptation to Climate Change
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26881/gsp.2021.3.02Keywords:
environmental protection law, climate change, principle of sustainable developmentAbstract
The principle of sustainable development, although it underlies modern solutions in the area of environmental protection and climate protection, is not an end in itself but it is only a means, way, or method for accomplishing the goal. In essence, it reconciles naturally conflicting values protected by law and puts them into practice both in normative and factual terms.
The place and role of the principle of sustainable development in environmental protection law are out of the question. On the other hand, its significance and role in climate law – aspiring to be an independent area of law – should be explored.
In fact, due to its conciliatory nature, the principle of sustainable development features farreaching flexibility. Without changing the normative content, it allows responding to various factual states. That determines its attractiveness, the more so that at present the climate is undergoing a far-reaching change to which the legislator must respond.
The effects of climate change to which the principle of sustainable development refers, include, for instance, climate refugees (or climate migrants).
Climate change requires that the legislator should focus on three aspects – the normative regulation of reasons for climate change, the normative regulation of the effects of climate change, and the normative regulation of preventing climate change in the future. The principle of sustainable development and its inherent flexibility – given that for the first two groups of issues the principle of sustainable development refers to axiological conflicts – makes it possible to resolve such conflicts so that all the conflicting values can coexist in parallel. However, for the last group, the sustainable development principle aims to implement intergenerational relations in the climate dimension.
Thus, beyond any doubt, in the context of climate change, the principle of sustainable development has a special and unique function, allowing to integrate the changes and make them subject to legal regulations.
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