The history of international environmental law - Introduction to International Environmental Law - page 30

Probably the most profound change was the one that took place in the
global economic system after the fall of the Soviet Union. The free trade
system based on capitalist principles permitted goods, capital and services to
cross borders. The establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in
1995 was an enormous force towards global removal of market boundaries.
It was complemented by regional free trade areas such as the European
Community (EC/EU). However, the breakthrough of free trade caused prob-
lems for international environmental protection. Unilateral measures to
promote environmental protection were more frequently considered as a form
of economic protectionism, and as such potentially prohibited by the WTO
rules and principles.
The beginnings of international environmental law
In the second phase, the actors in international environmental politics were
faced with highly complex environmental problems. This phase in history was
dominated primarily by a focus on so-called diffuse pollution: pollution that
springs from many small sources and grows into a severe contamination prob-
lem, which is not distinctly traceable to any single source. The problems that
emerged in the 1980s required huge volumes of scientifi c research and bodies
that were able to analyse and make sense of this vast wealth of information; one
such body was the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The
era was also characterized by the emergence of genuinely global environmental
problems: ozone depletion, climate change and loss of biodiversity are prob-
lems that were not caused by any single country or actor, but they affect us all.
Pollution by many small sources is diffi cult to regulate, as no single govern-
ment or identifi able factory can be deemed responsible for the pollution.
There are just so many factories, cars and energy plants that discharge air
pollutants, each on its own producing a negligible contribution, but creating
signifi cant cumulative damage and often transboundary damage, where air
currents carry pollutants to other regions, causing problems such as acid rain,
for example.
The fi rst regional environmental treaty system to address such a pollution
problem was adopted under the United Nations Economic Commission for
Europe (UNECE) in 1979: the Convention on Long-range Transboundary
Air Pollution (LRTAP). 23 The LRTAP process was initiated by the 1975
Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) (and the fi fth
Chapter in its Final Act). The LRTAP Convention set an example for envi-
ronmental regulation generally: in 1979, the LRTAP Convention was
adopted which only contained general obligations; it has since been supple-
mented by several protocols. By supplementing an initial Convention with
numerous protocols, we can ensure that we begin environmental regulation
early and make it more specifi ed and intensifi ed as our knowledge about the
environment increases.