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4 CJEL 1 (2020)

handle is hein.journals/chjevl4 and id is 1 raw text is: (tI CHINESE JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL BRILL LAW 4 (2020) 1-11 C...... N IJ H O F F brill com/cjel Editorial Since the final issue of 2019 went to print, a number of environmental law developments have taken place around the world. We have also seen the dev- astating impact global and nationally on human health and every aspect of life as a result of the rapid spread of the disease now known as COVID-19. 1 Climate Change: C O P25 Further to climate change discussions in previous editorials of our journal, the 25th cop of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC, COP25) met in Madrid in early December 2019. COP25 was also the first time all Parties to the Paris Agreement had met since the comple- tion and adoption of almost all of the Paris Rulebook at the 2018 COP24 in Katowice, Poland. While operationalisation of the Paris Agreement, through the Rulebook, will unfold throughout 2020 and beyond, it was disappointing to see that yet again, Parties have been unable to reach a consensus on the final content of Article 6. Referred to colloquially as the 'carbon markets' provision, Article 6 is intended to provide both market and non-market pathways for emissions mitigation. Similar to COP24 in Katowice, the negotiations at CO P25 in Madrid were fraught with disagreement and ultimately resulted in an ongo- ing lack of certainty about this important article of the Paris Agreement. During the COP25, it was deeply concerning to see Australia's continued attempts to use 'carry over credits'-emissions achieved in previous years, over and above the agreed targets under the Kyoto Protocol-to meet is cur- rent and future mitigation requirements. This unilateral attempt to reduce Australia's international climate change obligations is misguided on several fronts. First, it is well outside the object and purpose of the Paris Agreement. Secondly, many other Annex 11 State Parties have achieved mitigation reduc- tions well below their Kyoto Protocol targets. If all such State Parties sought to follow Australia's attempts to minimise their future mitigation efforts, then the adverse impact on global emissions and the climate system would be cata- strophic. More pointedly, given the recent and ongoing environmental harms experienced across much of Australia-including unprecedented severe and © BEN BOER, ROWENA CANTLEY-SMITH AND QIN TIANBAO, 2020 I DOI:10.1163/24686042-12340047 This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC 4.0 License.

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