State Responsibility and the Reparation of Non-Economic Losses Related to Climate Change under the Paris Agreement

The article identifies the possible content of a claim for reparation for non-economic losses deriving from the breach of the obligations set out in the Paris Agreement that could be put forward by injured States in a contentious case before the International Court of Justice. Working on the assumption that the obligation not to cause harm to global atmospheric commons through excessive greenhouse gas emissions could be both a transboundary and a global matter, the study highlights what could be the appropriate forms of reparation with regard to the injury devoid of economic value that derives from, on the one hand, the general legal interest of any State in protecting the environment and, on the other, losses related to the damages caused to the territory and the population of affected States that are difficult to be assessed in monetary terms. Ultimately, it observes that climate change-related noneconomic losses are not easy to assess and that it is to be hoped that further international practice and case-law will be developed in the years to come in order to clarify the different categories of non-economic losses, inter alia with a view to finding appropriate forms of reparation capable of addressing what has been effectively “lost”.