Air, Atmosphere and Climate Change

The regulation of atmospheric pollution is one of the earliest and best-developed areas of international cooperation and regulation in the field of the environment. This chapter briefly analyzes customary rules as they apply to atmospheric pollution and then continues with a more detailed examination of treaty regimes in three selected areas: Long range transboundary air pollution; protection of the ozone layer; and climate change. The chapter examines these frameworks in terms of the substantive issues they address, as well as the lessons to be learned from each. These three regimes are arguably the most important and provide lessons for both the future of regulation of atmospheric pollution, and international environmental law as a whole.