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6 Publicist 1 (2010)

handle is hein.journals/public6 and id is 1 raw text is: Evolving Responsibility? The Principle of Common but Differentiated Responsibility in the UNFCCC by Douglas Bushey, U.C. BerkeleyI Sikina Jinnah, American University2 INTRODUCTION At their core, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations can be understood as a series of attempts to operationalize the international legal principle of common but differentiated responsibilities.3 The negotiations make clear that a global agreement to address the problem of climate change must necessarily apportion responsibility to act among diverse parties. The principle of common but differentiated responsibilities (CDR) has guided the process of apportionment within the UNFCCC since its inception in 1992.4 Although the principle has never been susceptible to precise definition, CDR has found expression within the climate change regime through a series of agreements in which parties have divided themselves into different groups in order to take on different responsibilities to act. This shifting landscape of responsibility demonstrates that the principle of CDR has evolved over time. As a result, it has taken on different meanings at different stages in the life of the negotiations. The goal of this Article is to analyze the results of the Copenhagen negotiations with a focus on the shifts in meaning and interpretation of the principle of CDR that occurred there. We argue that, although the Copenhagen negotiations failed to produce a legally binding agreement, the parties involved 1. Ph.D. Candidate Energy and Resources Group. U.C. Berkeley (2011) and J.D. Candidate Berkeley Law (2012). 2. Assistant Professor of International Relations. American University. 3. The principle, enshrined within the UNFCCC, was explicitly formulated in the 1992 Rio Declaration on Environment and Development: In view of the different contributions to global environmental degradation, States have common but differentiated responsibilities. The developed countries acknowledge the responsibility that they bear in the international pursuit of sustainable development in view of the pressures their societies place on the global environment and of the technologies and financial resources they command. United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, June 3-14, 1992. Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, Principle 7, U.N. Doc. A/CONF. 151/26 (Aug. 12. 1992): see United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, chapeau, arts. 3.1. 4.1, May 9. 1992. S. Treaty Doc. No. 102-38, 1771 U.N.T.S. 107 (hereinafter UNFCCC). 4. See UNFCCC, chapeau, arts. 3.1, 4.1. 5. See Christopher D. Stone, Common but Differentiated Responsibilities in International Law, 98 AM. J. INT'L L. 276 (2004).

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