Najam in The News on Sunday on Pakistan and Climate Law
Adil Najam, Dean of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, was recently interviewed for an article on Pakistan and international climate law following the latest Global Climate Risk Index 2018 report from the think tank Germanwatch which ranks Pakistan as the seventh most vulnerable country to climate change.
Najam was quoted in a November 26, 2016 article in The News on Sunday entitled “Pakistan and International Climate Laws.”
From the text of the article:
Dr Adil Najam, Dean of the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University says, “The reality is that most international conventions are actually very hollow. They really have very few implementable clauses and nearly none for developing countries. The reason countries like Pakistan find it easy to sign them is because most of these conventions do not ask countries to do anything, especially developing countries. Mostly the only requirement is to attend meetings or submit a report or two. This is not a Pakistan problem, this is a failing of international environmental policy.”
He adds, “A good example – actually, a bad example – is the Paris climate agreement. All the international celebrations aside, the fact of the matter is that from a legal point of view it has nearly no implementable clause. Countries say what they can do voluntarily and then the convention politely asks them to do what they can. That’s it!”
Dr. Najam sounds one note of optimism in this scenario. “The one major exception is in the area of wildlife and especially trade in endangered species. That convention has teeth – meaning, implementable clauses. Which is why it is also followed and implemented better.”
Adil Najam is the inaugural dean of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University and professor of International Relations and Earth & Environment. Earlier, he served as vice chancellor of Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), in Lahore, Pakistan, and as the director of BU’s Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future. He has also taught at MIT and at the Tufts University Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. His research focuses on issues of global governance and global public policy, including those related to diplomacy, climate change, South Asia, Muslim countries, and human development.