Thirteenth International Conference on Climate Change: Impacts & Responses

Abstract

Protection of atmosphere as global common can be challenged through international/conventional legal mechanisms. Legal responses to Amazon environmental disaster following extensive fires of 2019 depends on legal options available for the protection of atmosphere when potential liability and state responsibility arise from breach of duty of reasonable care. State responsibility could arise from atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), whose impact could not be confined within territories under the sovereignty of the concerned State by their very nature. Brazil endorsed the Paris Agreement ratified in 2016 Conference of the Parties (COP 21) setting national targets for reducing emissions. Afterward, the new administration declined to host the following COP-25 in 2019 arguing budgetary constraints. Brazil initially committed to cutting emissions 37 percent by 2025 plus a progressive reduction of 43 percent by 2030, using 2005 levels. According to International conventions, the damage to Global Common obliges to ensure prompt and effective compensation. It should be read in conjunction with the particular features of the global atmosphere as regards its non-linear, complex character. Following that, as part of the Global Common concept, the tropical rainforest events impacting on the protection of the atmosphere as regards GHG emissions and global carbon balance must be a priority worldwide.