Sustainable Development within the Climate Change Regime

Sustainable development is a multi-faced, multi-meaning and complex concept. The present paper, after an introductory analysis on the understanding and meaning of such a principle, focuses on the application of the concept of sustainable development in the climate change sector, trying to assess the possible advantages in terms of a more efficient and effective environmental protection which may derive from an increased incorporation of the concept of sustainable development in such a field. To this effect, the possible interplay between sustainable development and climate change is analysed firstly from the climate change perspective and secondly form the sustainable development perspective. Then, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on climate change is examined, as a first concrete step towards a convergence of the two concepts. In such a context, in fact, sustainable development was mentioned as one of the objectives to be pursued with the implementation of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which aim at enabling Annex I Parties to the UNFCCC (industrialised countries with binding limitation and reduction commitments) to reduce emissions through projects performed in non-Annex I Parties (less industrialised countries without binding commitments). In particular, in such a context, the convergence between the two concepts may consist in the duty placed upon the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol on climate change wishing to host into their territory CDM project to develop at the national level specific sustainable development criteria. To this respect, the present paper tries to address and possibly answer a basic question, which relates to whether through the adoption and implementation of sustainable development criteria, CDM projects can really contribute to achieving sustainable development in host countries. In this sense, it is argued that in order to make CDM projects really contribute to achieving sustainable development in practice, host countries should try to use SD criteria as a tool on the one side to promote synergies between developmental objectives, both at national and local levels, and, on the other, to achieve social and environmental benefits. However, since the relevant practice shows that this is not always the case, it is suggested that the legal regime which governs the CDM projects could be improved through the definition at international level of some “minimum” SD criteria to be respected by all host countries with regard to the selection and implementation of CDM projects within their territory.