Blue Planet Law and Ecological Sustainability in the Twenty-First Century

Abstract

In the twenty-first century, the international community and states face the challenge of reconciling the economic and technological development of our post-industrial societies with the prevention or mitigation of global environmental problems such as climate change, ocean degradation, and biodiversity loss. Nowadays, international environmental law leaves up to the sovereignty of each state most of the measures necessary to prevent pollution, ecosystem degradation, and unsustainable use of natural resources. An important step, together with other international and national efforts, towards the transition to a more globalised and effective environmental law, a Blue Planet Law, will be the approval of the Global Pact for the Environment, which is being discussed at UN level. The Pact, along with other new international environmental conventions, will provide a legal framework that will help promote more effective ecological sustainability and preventive responsibility, considering namely the precautionary principle and intergenerational equity. The development of a Blue Planet Law, a Global Law of the Earth Ecosystem, is as urgent now as Human Rights Law was after the Second World War, and, in the next decade, it will be a crucial element for international and domestic implementation of the Agenda 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals.