Protecting the Environment from the Impact of Climate Change: Environmental Law and Policy to the Rescue

Abstract

Climate change remains a topical and thorny issue of major concern across the globe. Alteration in the world climate system has impacted negatively on all aspects of human activities around the world. Global warming has progressively triggered immeasurable natural and human induced disasters ranging from incessant earthquakes, landslides, melting of the polar ice caps and flooding, amongst other extreme occurrences. Consequently, the necessity to find permanent solution to this seemingly obstreperous challenge has become imperative; otherwise more unquantifiable devastation will befall humans and will continue to be hard hit from the impact therefrom. Recourse has been had to laws and policies on climate change by fashioning out same to either moderate the
frequency of human activities through mitigation or cushion the impacts of climate change through adaptation. But as a result of the fragility of climate change laws and policies, which leads to their unenforceability, recourse has
also been made to environmental law and policy impliedly to augment or breathe life to the soul of climate change law and policies. Thus, climate laws and policies, which have been tailored to regulate climate change, have made little or no impact in mitigating climate change. On its part, environmental law and policy, have by implication, been resorted to for the regulation of climate change but unfortunately have not made any significant impact in mitigating climate change. This article critically examines the mitigating impact of climate change through environmental law and policy.

Keywords: Climate Change, Global Warming, Environmental Law and Policy.

 

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