The Sustainable Development Goals and International Environmental Law: Normative Value and Challenges for Implementation

Veredas Do Direito, Volume 13(26), pp.13-60

48 Pages Posted: 18 Feb 2017

See all articles by Riccardo Pavoni

Riccardo Pavoni

University of Siena - Department of Law

Dario Piselli

Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID); European Environment Agency (EEA)

Date Written: 2016

Abstract

This article explores the implications for international environmental law of the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which occurred at the 2015 United Nations Sustainable Development Summit. Following a summary of the main outcomes of the Summit, the paper evaluates the process and vision of the SDGs against both the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the past efforts of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in the field of sustainable development. The paper then examines how the environmental dimension of the SDGs is integrated into the general framework of the post-2015 development agenda and addresses two important questions which will most likely prove instrumental in the achievement of the Goals themselves. First, it the light of UN General Assembly Resolution 70/1, it discusses the normative value of the environmental obligations of States enshrined in the SDGs. Secondly, it deals with problems of implementation of the outcomes of the Summit, and accordingly attempts to identify the main legal challenges for the operationalization of the environmental component of the SDGs, in the wider context of the Agenda and taking the recent developments under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) into account.

Keywords: Sustainable Development Goals, United Nations, International Environmental Law, Integration, 2030 Agenda, Post-2015

JEL Classification: K32, K33

Suggested Citation

Pavoni, Riccardo and Piselli, Dario, The Sustainable Development Goals and International Environmental Law: Normative Value and Challenges for Implementation (2016). Veredas Do Direito, Volume 13(26), pp.13-60, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2919246

Riccardo Pavoni

University of Siena - Department of Law ( email )

Via P.A. Mattioli 10
Siena, 53100
Italy

Dario Piselli (Contact Author)

Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID) ( email )

Case postale 136
Geneva, 1211
Switzerland

European Environment Agency (EEA) ( email )

Kongens Nytorv 6
Kopenhagen K, DK - 1050
Denmark

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