State Responsibility for Climate Change Damages

• Main Author: Maciej Nyka
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin 2021-06-01
• Series: Review of European and Comparative Law
• Subjects: climate change, climate liability, state responsibility, climate change damages
• Online Access: https://czasopisma.kul.pl/recl/article/view/12246

The state’s liability for damages in the field of climate change remains one of those areas of international law that has not yet been comprehensively regulated. At present, the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage, specific to the norms of international climate law, is not an alternative to the general principles of international law regulating responsibility and compensation issues of the states in the sphere of international climate law. The application of customary international legal mechanisms of responsibility of states in relation to climate damage can be a kind of challenge. Both the damage itself and elements such as causation or the possibility of attributing responsibility to the state pose a significant challenge in the sphere of climate protection. On the other hand, it is impossible not to notice that properly applied norms of general international law make it possible to overcome the difficulties arising from the specificity of the responsibility of countries for climate change. The latest jurisprudence of the International Court of Justice in environmental matters creates a framework for the settlement and implementation of possible liability for damages in the area of ​​climate change.