International Environmental Law
This chapter addresses the development and implementation of international and regional instruments and policies concerning the environment and natural resources across the sub-regions of the Asia-Pacific, in the context of the continuing debate on the need to promote ecological sustainability globally. Many of these instruments and policies began to shape national environmental law responses in the region from the 1970s. Two recent and highly significant instruments are the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the Sustainable Development Goals, both agreed in 2015. The chapter then examines the functions of the more important regional environmentally oriented institutions, together with their associated legal frameworks and soft law instruments, for each of the Asia-Pacific’s sub-regions. It also focuses on the increasing international, regional, and national trend of recognizing the links between environmental law and human rights, and specifically the promotion of the right to a safe, clean, healthy, and sustainable environment.