International Environmental Justice and Financial Actors

Extract

[...] The International Criminal Court can thus pronounce proportional fines to the turnover of financial actors so that the sanctions are more effective on financial actors. In addition, environmental litigation is growing strongly, which demonstrates the role of judges in making international environmental law effective for financial actors. These latter can actively participate in environmental justice with reporting obligations and declarations in case of suspicions of illegal financing. Finally, financial actors participate in the financing of environmental justice and can allow the execution of judicial decisions. [...]

[...] However, the international action of judges is limited by the fact that international law is based on the consent of States in order to be binding. Financial actors, drivers of the fight against climate change subject to contradictions In parallel with the action of the judges, financiers can also have a beneficial action for the environment. Indeed, financial actors can make investments in environmental innovations or in devices for the conservation and protection of the environment. Furthermore, the Rio Declaration provides in Article 16 a polluter-pays principle that applies to financial actors. [...]

[...] The expression of international environmental protection refers to the need for international actions to combat climate change. The current context of the multiplication of climate-related disasters (floods, storms, heatwaves, etc.). The recurrence of such events, everywhere in the world, requires an amplified action from all actors who can be mobilized. The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) reports are alarming and agree on the need to reduce CO2 emissions to limit warming by ensuring the effectiveness of the Paris agreements of 2016. [...]

[...] The principle of integration (Stockholm Declaration) provides that environmental protection is a requirement taken into account in all international policies, including economic ones. At the regional level, Article 11 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union provides the same principle of integration at the EU level. Judges, like financial actors, are bound by the respect of this principle. Subsequently, several regional movements demonstrate the willingness to establish an environmental governance, for example, the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol of 1997, which provides for the articulation of legal obligations in the matter of CO2 emissions reductions. [...]

[...] Is international environmental protection the business of judges or 'financiers'? As COP 30 currently opens in Belém, Brazil, environmental protection remains a current and international issue in the context of significant and undisputed climate changes acknowledged by scientists. The judges who can act for the environment are all judges, whether national, regional or international. These are the magistrates responsible for ensuring the proper application of the law and various environmental regulations. The term 'financier' refers broadly to all individuals or entities working in the economic domain. [...]