Ethical & Legal Instruments
Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
Binding treatyASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution
A binding regional treaty adopted by the member states of ASEAN in 2002 and in force since 2003, written for one specific recurring harm: smoke from land and forest fires that crosses national borders. Prevention and monitoring are named as the primary duty, with emergency response as the backstop, and the treaty followed more than a decade of softer regional measures that proved insufficient. It was the first regional treaty anywhere aimed specifically at haze pollution, and it is now ratified by all ten ASEAN member states, Indonesia only in 2015.
2002 · 4 provisions
Richard Mortel via Wikimedia Commons
Binding treatyAfrican Convention on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (revised, "Maputo Convention")
The African Union's own binding conservation framework, adopted at Maputo in 2003 as a modernisation of the 1968 Algiers Convention and in force since 2016. Its stated purpose is to encourage individual and joint action for the conservation, utilisation and development of soil, water, flora and fauna, for the present and future welfare of humankind. Unlike many framework conventions it gives itself both a Conference of Parties and a dedicated Secretariat so its provisions can be enforced, and it writes the traditional rights and indigenous knowledge of local communities into conservation strategy rather than treating them as obstacles.
2003 · 4 provisions
Chris Larsen, NASA Operation IceBridge
Binding treatyAntarctic Treaty System (ATS)
Signed in Washington in 1959 and in force since 1961, the Antarctic Treaty sets a whole continent aside for peaceful, scientific use, prohibiting military activity, weapons testing, nuclear explosions and radioactive waste disposal south of 60 degrees south. It freezes rather than settles territorial claims, guarantees freedom of scientific investigation and the open exchange of results, and lets any consultative party inspect any other party's stations at any time. Later instruments extended the same logic to seals and marine living resources, and the 1991 Madrid Protocol designates Antarctica a natural reserve devoted to peace and science, banning mineral resource activity other than scientific research.
1959 · 7 provisions
Muntaka Chasant via Wikimedia Commons
Binding treatyBamako Convention on the Ban of the Import into Africa and the Control of Transboundary Movement and Management of Hazardous Wastes within Africa
Africa's own binding answer to the hazardous waste trade, negotiated at Bamako in 1991 by states of the then Organization of African Unity and in force since 1998. Where the Basel Convention regulates hazardous waste movements through prior informed consent, Bamako bans the import of hazardous and radioactive waste into Africa outright, and closes the routes around that ban by prohibiting ocean and inland water dumping and incineration. It writes the precautionary principle directly into the treaty, and pairs the ban with obligations to soundly manage the waste African states generate themselves. It exists because African states did not trust Basel to stop wealthier nations exporting toxic waste to the continent.
1991 · 4 provisions
John Messina for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (DOCUMERICA)
Binding treatyBasel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal
A binding treaty adopted in 1989 under the UN Environment Programme and in force since 1992, whose stated objective is to protect human health and the environment against the adverse effects of hazardous wastes. It commits parties to reduce waste generation at the source, to dispose of hazardous waste as close as possible to where it was generated, and to permit no cross-border shipment without the prior written consent of the importing and any transit state. Trade with states that have not ratified is restricted, and parties commit to preventing illegal traffic and to seeing illegal shipments re-imported or otherwise remedied.
1989 · 6 provisions
NASA (Space Shuttle mission STS-78 crew)
Binding treatyRegional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation and Justice in Environmental Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean (Escazú Agreement)
A binding regional treaty for Latin America and the Caribbean, adopted at Escazú in Costa Rica in 2018 under the UN regional commission ECLAC and in force since 2021. It rests on three linked rights treated as substantive rather than merely procedural: access to environmental information, participation in environmental decisions, and access to justice in environmental matters. It is the first binding environmental treaty in the world with an explicit article protecting environmental defenders, a direct response to the region's record as the deadliest in the world for them, and it frames the right to a healthy environment as belonging to present and future generations alike.
2018 · 5 provisions
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Binding treatyMontreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer
A protocol to the 1985 Vienna Convention, adopted in 1987 and the only treaty ever ratified by every UN member state. It sets concrete, binding, staged targets for ending both the production and the consumption of ozone depleting substances, and gives developing countries longer timelines plus a dedicated Multilateral Fund to cover the cost of transition. It has been adjusted or amended six times as the science advanced, most significantly by the 2016 Kigali Amendment on hydrofluorocarbons, and it is repeatedly cited as the most successful multilateral environmental agreement ever made.
1987 · 4 provisions
NASA / ISS Expedition 24 crew
Binding treatyConvention for the Protection of the Natural Resources and Environment of the South Pacific Region (Noumea Convention / SPREP Convention)
The Pacific Islands region's own binding treaty for its marine and coastal environment, adopted at Noumea in 1986 and in force since 1990, administered by SPREP from Samoa with twelve Pacific countries and territories as parties. Its Secretariat describes it as the major multilateral umbrella agreement in the Pacific for the protection of natural resources and the environment, and it forms the Pacific region's own chapter of the UN Environment Programme's Regional Seas Programme. Protection is delivered through targeted protocols, originally on dumping and on pollution emergencies, and parties meet every two years to assess the state of the Pacific marine environment and agree further action.
1986 · 4 provisions
UNclimatechange (UNFCCC) via Wikimedia Commons
Binding treatyParis Agreement
Adopted under the UN climate convention at COP21 in December 2015 and in force within a year, the Paris Agreement was the first binding climate agreement to bring all nations into a single framework. Its overarching goal is to hold the rise in global average temperature well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels while pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5. Each country sets out its own plan, a Nationally Determined Contribution covering both emissions cuts and adaptation, on a five-year cycle in which each round is meant to be more ambitious than the last. Progress is checked collectively through a transparency framework and a periodic Global Stocktake, and developed countries are expected to lead in financing and equipping those with fewer resources.
2015 · 7 provisions
National Park Service, Everglades National Park
Binding treatyConvention on Wetlands of International Importance (Ramsar Convention)
Signed at Ramsar in Iran in 1971 and in force since 1975, this was the first modern global intergovernmental treaty on the conservation and sustainable use of natural resources, and remains the only one devoted to a single ecosystem type. Each party lists at least one wetland of international importance and takes on an obligation to maintain its ecological character, while committing to the wise use of all the wetlands in its territory, not only the listed ones. Because wetlands, river basins and water-dependent migratory species cross borders, parties consult each other over shared systems, and they must inform the Secretariat when a listed wetland's ecological character changes or is likely to.
1971 · 5 provisions
Phinken via Wikimedia Commons
Binding treatyUnited Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
The parent treaty of every binding international climate commitment since, adopted in 1992 and in force since 1994, with near universal membership of 198 Parties. Its objective is to stabilise greenhouse gas concentrations at a level that would prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system, within a timeframe that lets ecosystems adapt naturally and food production and sustainable development continue. It committed states to act in the interest of human safety before the science was fully settled, placed the greater burden on the industrialised countries responsible for most historical emissions, and committed richer nations to fund and equip poorer ones. Both the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement operate under its framework.
1992 · 7 provisions
Bernard DUPONT
Binding treatyConvention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) — core principles summary
Agreed in Washington in 1973 and in force since 1975, CITES exists to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten the survival of the species. Rather than banning trade outright it sorts species into appendices by how threatened they are and applies graduated controls, from near-total prohibition of commercial trade to monitored licensing. Every party must build the Convention into its own national law for it to be enforced at borders and inside its territory. With 185 Parties it affords some degree of protection to more than 40,000 species of animals and plants.
1973 · 5 provisions