부산대학교 도서관

The international regime for climate change is embodied in the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol sets the mandatory quantified emissions limitation and reduction (QELAR) targets of greenhouse gases (GHGs) for Annexure I developed countries. However, it excludes the maritime transport sector from its purview and mandates the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) to address the issue of the mitigation of marine GHG emissions. Inter-governmental negotiations are underway in this regard, within the framework of the IMO's Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC). Presently, there is an impasse in the negotiations as nations have failed to arrive at a consensus on the contents of the regulatory framework for the mitigation of marine GHG emissions. This paper seeks to identify the legal issues and challenges in mitigating marine GHG emissions in post-Kyoto policy and to contribute to the ongoing debate on the challenges before the Conference of Parties (COP15)/Meeting of Parties (MOP5) of the Kyoto Protocol in addressing the issue of mitigation of marine bunker emissions. It provides an overview of the ongoing inter-governmental negotiations on post-Kyoto climate regime from the maritime transport perspective and reviews IMO's work on mitigating GHG emissions. It analyses the legal issues that add to the intricacies of bunker fuel negotiations due to limited jurisdiction of the countries in controlling emissions from maritime transport activities occurring outside their national borders. It looks at a number of legal issues, like “common but differentiated responsibilities (CBDR),” “flag of convenience” etc., that need to be resolved for evolving a mandatory regulatory framework for mitigation of marine GHG emissions.