Constitutional obligations can bind the authorities of a state not only in relation to their own citizens but also to people living abroad. The extent of this 'extraterritoriality of human rights' has been the subject of much debate. Recent decisions by German courts, in particular the Constitutional Court, have begun spelling out the reach of this obligation for German authorities. In 2020, citizens from Bangladesh and Nepal turned to the Constitutional Court, submitting a complaint, alongside German individuals, on the insufficient and weak climate policy of the German government. As part of its subsequent landmark decision, the Constitutional Court surprisingly upheld the admissibility of the complaints by non-German nationals living outside of Germany. The Court confirmed that greenhouse gas emissions emanating from Germany could potentially give rise to a duty to protect people abroad from the adverse effects of climate change, based on the fundamental rights protection provided under the Basic Law. However, the Court dismissed the complaints on substantive grounds. It established that - should extraterritorial obligations exist - these would differ from domestic obligations in both content and standard of review. Yet, the Court fell short in establishing a suitable standard for assessing a breach of the duty to protect in an extraterritorial context.

Die 26. Konferenz der Vertragsstaaten des Rahmenübereinkommens der Vereinten Nationen über Klimaänderungen (Conference of the Parties, COP26) fand Anfang November 2021 unter britischem Vorsitz in Glasgow statt. Die COP26 markierte die symbolische Halbzeit zwischen der Verabschiedung der UN-Klimarahmenkonvention (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, UNFCCC) im Jahr 1992 und dem Jahr 2050, wo laut IPCC weltweit netto null CO2-Emissionen erreicht werden müssen. Bis heute steigen die CO2-Emissionen jedoch stetig an. Vor diesem Hintergrund war das Pariser Abkommen (PA) von 2015 ein zentraler Durchbruch. Es ist das erste internationale Abkommen, das von allen Ländern ehrgeizige Klimaschutzmaßnahmen verlangt.

On 8 November 2016, Donald Trump was elected to become the 45th President of the United States of America. In his campaign, he repeatedly expressed his intention to cancel the Paris Agreement. How can the course set with the adoption of the Paris Agreement be continued independently of the developments in the US? Lukas Hermwille and Wolfgang Obergassel sketch possible consequences of the sea change of US climate policy for the international negotiation process and identify options for a Trump-resilient way forward.

US-Prasident Donald Trump verkundete am Nachmittag des 1. Juni 2017 im Rosengarten des Weisen Hauses, dass er das Pariser Klimaabkommen aus dem Jahr 2015 kundigen wolle. Was bedeutet dieser Schritt der USA fur den globalen Klimaschutz? Dieser in brief zeigt, in welcher Weise die an Klimaschutz interessierten Staaten sich am besten organisieren, um das Pariser Klimaabkommen und die globale Klimapolitik erfolgreich weiterzufuhren.

The twenty-third Conference of the Parties (COP-23) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was held in Bonn on 6–17 November 2017, under the presidency of Fiji. COP-23 focused, in particular, on developing rules to implement the 2015 Paris Agreement and on raising ambition for climate protection. Since this was the first ‘Oceanic’ COP, special attention was given to supporting the countries of the Global South in their efforts to reduce emissions, adapt to climate change, and deal with the unavoidable impacts of climate change. The following text summarizes the main developments and results of COP-23. As noted above one key objective of COP-23 was to push ahead with negotiations on the rules for implementing the Paris Agreement. The aim was to enable these to be adopted at the next COP in Katowice, Poland, in December 2018. The Paris Agreement establishes the objectives and basic mechanisms of climate policy but the concrete rules of how to implement the agreement have not been formulated yet. When the UNFCCC adopted the Paris Agreement, it had established a dedicated subsidiary body for this purpose: the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Paris Agreement (Ad Hoc Working Group). The objective of COP-23 was to agree on an initial negotiating text for this rulebook as a basis for further negotiations in 2018.

What can reasonably be expected from the UNFCCC process and the climate conference in Paris 2015? To achieve transformative change, prevailing unsustainable routines embedded in socio-economic systems have to be translated into new and sustainable ones. This article conceptualizes the UNFCCC and the associated policy processes as a catalyst for this translation by applying a structurational regime model. This model provides an analytical distinction of rules (norms and shared meaning) and resources (economic resources as well as authoritative and allocative power) and allows us to conceptualize agency on various levels, including beyond nation states. The analysis concludes that the UNFCCC's narrow focus on emission targets, which essentially is a focus on resources, has proven ineffective. In addition, the static division of industrialized and developing countries in the Convention's annexes and the consensus-based decision-making rules have impeded ambitious climate protection. The article concludes that the UNFCCC is much better equipped to provide rules for climate protection activities and should consciously expand this feature to improve its impact. Policy relevance The international community is negotiating a new global climate agreement, to be adopted at the Conference of the Parties (COP 21) in December 2015 in Paris and to be applicable from 2020. This article analyses the successes and limitations the UNFCCC has had so far in combating climate change and it develops recommendations on how to enhance efforts within and beyond the framework of the Convention. From our analysis we derive two main recommendations for an effective and structurationally balanced treaty: First, multidimensional mitigation contributions going beyond emission targets could strongly improve countries’ abilities to tailor their contributions around national political discourses. Second, the UNFCCC regime should be complemented with another treaty outside of the UNFCCC framework. This ‘Alliance of the Ambitious’ would allow the pioneers of climate protection to move ahead and enjoy the benefits of cooperation. The dynamics generated through such a club approach could be fed back into the UNFCCC, leading to increased ambition by others in future commitment cycles.

Aufgrund der asymmetrischen Struktur von Ursache und Wirkung (historische Hauptverursacher im Norden, besondere Verwundbarkeit des Sudens) und aufgrund der schnell aufholenden Entwicklung der Schwellenlander sind vor allem die Nord-Sud-Beziehungen ein entscheidender Faktor bei der Bewaltigung des Klimaproblems. Die alten, traditionellen Industriestaaten werden die sich industrialisierenden Staaten des Sudens nur dann zu eigenen Minderungsleistungen bewegen konnen, wenn sie - neben eigenen ambitionierten Reduktionen - auch in hohem Mase die Minderungsmasnahmen im Suden finanzieren und die armeren Staaten bei der Anpassung unterstutzen. Technologische Unterstutzung und Finanzierung sind deshalb bei der internationalen Klimakonferenz (COP13) in Bali im Jahr 2007 zu einem Kernprojekt fur die post-2012-Verhandlungen geworden. Selbst konservative Schatzungen rechnen mit mehreren Dutzend Milliarden US-Dollar fur die Minderung des Treibhausgasausstoses und fur Anpassungsmasnahmen pro Jahr. Es ist daher notig, bei der Finanzierung der Bekampfung des Klimawandels nicht allein auf staatliche Mittel zu setzen, sondern auch private Mittel verstarkt mit einzubeziehen. Diese Kurzstudie, die fur das Bundesministerium fur wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (BMZ) Anfang 2008 erstellt wurde, bietet eine Aufstellung und Bewertung der bestehenden Finanzierungsoptionen auf multilateraler (und zum Teil bilateraler) Ebene, sowie eine Darstellung von in der Planung befindlichen Instrumenten und innovativer Vorschlage fur neue Formen der Zusammenarbeit von staatlichen und privaten Akteuren.