PREMISE NORMATIV-CONCEPTUALE ALE UNUI DREPT AL CLIMEI

The official proclamation of the climate emergency (at an international, European, and national
level) has stimulated the concerns and efforts to regulate and adopt public policies aiming for
mitigation of, and adaptation to climate change. Initiated in the name of the principle of precaution –
scientific uncertainty regarding the anthropic causes do not justify the inconsideration of the
phenomenon, but they impose taking progressive and proportional measures – 30 years ago, the
process of development of climate law has already known three successive and progressive stages,
configured around three major international acts. The Framework Convention on climate change
(1992) has generated a general normativity, as a guideline and non-binding; the additional Kyoto
Protocol (1997), with a superior legal force, provided precise targets and determinate periods of time
to reach them; finally, the Paris Agreement (2015) has marked the phase of voluntary commitments
and of adequate instruments, varied in their means of enforcing.
Characterized by a dependency and a major interconnection with scientific data, climate law is
inspired by a series of fundamental concepts (general interest of humanity, environmental transition,
the rights of future generations, global approach), and it is dominated by a series of general
principles (precaution, common but differentiated responsibility, the right to a stable climate),
affirming itself as a law of the present day, but especially of the future.
Assuming the Green Deal as a new strategy for growth of the EU (2019), of the law for climate
(2020) and the return of the USA to the Paris Agreement (2021) re-launch the multi-lateral framework
for negotiation and international regulation in this field, opening ample perspective for affirmation of
the new legal regime and the innovative scientific field.