Document Type
Article
Disciplines
Environmental Law
Abstract
As the number of international environmental agreements (IEAs) continues to mount' so too does the continuing destruction of the environment by mankind. Notwithstanding the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), endangered mammals continue to be taken and traded at alarming rates. Notwithstanding the Biodiversity Convention, the global heritage of biodiversity continues to be reduced at the estimated rate of 50,000 species per year and the impact of the Biodiversity Convention on that trend has, so far, not been detectable. Notwithstanding the enumeration of countless fisheries conservation agreements, many of the fish stocks of the world are reported on the brink of collapse. Notwithstanding the Framework Convention on Climate Change, greenhouse gas emissions continue to spiral upward and it appears probable that all but two of the industrialized countries will fail to fulfill their aggregate greenhouse gas emissions commitments for the year 2000. Although the Basel Convention on Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Waste expresses the aim of both restricting trade in waste and limiting generation of waste at the source, its success in restricting trade is undetermined and generation of hazardous waste continues to mount worldwide. Even the hitherto highly successful Montreal Protocol on Protection of the Ozone Layer is threatened by the rise of a massive global black market, i.e., noncompliance at the private level, that clearly challenges the integrity of the regime and so far has not been answered by any effective enforcement response.
Recommended Citation
Parker, Richard, "Choosing Norms to Promote Compliance and Effectiveness: The Case for International Environmental Benchmark Standards" (1998). Faculty Articles and Papers. 429.
https://digitalcommons.lib.uconn.edu/law_papers/429