13. 4. International liability in the field of climate change, human rights and migration (Karolina Žákovská, Věra Honusková)

The term “odpovědnost” (responsibility or liability in English) is used quite frequently in various treaty and non-treaty international instruments, but with very different meanings. On closer inspection, it is necessary to distinguish three basic meanings of this word: 

1. responsibility for internationally wrongful conduct (i.e. a breach of a valid international obligation attributable to a State), 

2. liability for harmful consequences (typically environmental damage) arising from activities not prohibited by international law, and 

3. responsibility in the sense of positive (active, prospective) responsibility, or more precisely, the primary obligation of the state to do something, to ensure something, or to refrain from doing something. 

(from ŠTURMA, Pavel. Mezinárodní odpovědnost za škodlivé následky činností nezakázaných mezinárodním právem. In: ČEPELKA, Čestmír, JÍLEK, Dalibor a Pavel ŠTURMA. Mezinárodní odpovědnost. Spisy Právnické fakulty Masarykovy univerzity v Brně, Řada teoretická, svazek 261. Masarykova univerzity, Brno, 2003, p. 116). 

Climate change raises the question of state responsibility/liability in many ways. 

Think about whether state responsibility/liability (choose the appropriate term) can be considered for the following aspects of climate change (and the potential damage associated with them): 

1. Climate change caused by historical greenhouse gas emissions and the damage caused by it. 

2. Failure to respect UNFCCC obligations. 

3. Failure to respect the obligation of Annex I Parties to the UNFCCC to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by a specified amount under the Kyoto Protocol. 

4. Potential disregard of the obligation of States under the Paris Agreement to set an ambitious nationally determined contribution to the common objective of holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels. 

5. State-induced lack of adaptation, including disaster preparedness. 

6. Migration associated with slow or rapid environmental changes caused by climate change. 

To whom could the state be responsible/liable and for what? 

Who could claim responsibility/liability of the state and possible compensation?