How and why is the environment protected? - BBC Learning English

128,790 views ・ 2021-10-18

BBC Learning English


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People are facing a threat we've never faced before:
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environmental disasters.
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This programme will show you how the law is adapting
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to keep the world itself safe, by protecting our environment.
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Does nature have any legal rights?
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How can laws developed for humans be adapted to protect nature?
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We'll show how laws are increasingly being used to protect our environment.
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The environment is being threatened like never before.
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Human activity is changing the world around us,
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warming the air and sea.
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Extreme floods, droughts and wildfires are increasingly common
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and affect all continents and oceans.
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Can the law help?
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Laws are basically an agreement between people.
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How can you have an agreement with something that's not a person –
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a tree for example?
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We depend on the world around us:
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we need clean air, clean water
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and clean earth to live.
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The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
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says everyone has the right to life and security.
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We can't have either life or security without a healthy environment.
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So, that's where the law comes in.
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Environmental laws started really being developed
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in the middle of the last century.
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With more and more countries agreeing treaties – international agreements –
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there is greater willingness to engage in conversations
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about how to prevent environmental disasters.
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Rizwana Hasan, a climate lawyer from Bangladesh,
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explained some of the laws keeping the environment safe.
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There are UN-sponsored international laws
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to deal with issues like climate change,
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ozone layer depletion, protection of biological diversity,
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protection of international watercourses,
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protection of endangered species,
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regulation on persistent organic pollutants.
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There are also laws that are made by regional organisations,
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like the European Union targeting the European environment.
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Many laws come from global organisations,
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others from regional bodies like the European Union.
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They cover a huge range of areas.
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But what kind of laws are they and what power do they have?
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There are soft laws and there are hard laws.
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Soft laws are mere political commitments; they are not binding.
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Hard laws are binding: so, if a state ratifies a hard law
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and then does something that is against
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the letters and spirits of the law,
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then you can actually file a case against the state.
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There are two main types of law:
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soft laws, which are more like political commitments or aims,
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and hard laws.
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You can be punished for breaking a hard law.
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Rizwana explained how environmental law
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features in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
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In one article, where it says that states have to endeavour
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to improve all aspects of industrial and environmental hygiene.
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We do have two covenants:
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one covenant deals with the civil and political rights
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and the other covenant deals with the economic, social and cultural rights.
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They do not expressly talk about environmental rights,
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but protection of environment is linked to enjoyment
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of your civil, political, social and economic rights.
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Similarly, the enjoyment of your social, political, economic
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and cultural rights also depend on
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your enjoyment of environmental rights.
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So, the big human rights laws
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don't actually say very much about the environment.
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But many of your rights depend on it:
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without a safe environment, we couldn't enjoy our rights.
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Are there any laws that give us a safe environment?
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It was this year only, that in March 2021,
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69 countries have agreed to work together
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to ensure that there is an international law
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that will recognise people's right to help the environment.
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The work is about to begin. The major obstacle...
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the major obstacles remain lack of political commitment.
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Although there is an agreement to make a law
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to recognise your right to help the environment,
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the big problem is getting people to follow it.
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We saw how, despite there not being much law
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directly about the environment,
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many of your rights depend on it.
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Is that enough to help in the real world?
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Climate change is harming people now.
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In 2018, more than 35,000 people were forced to flee their homes
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in the Mekong Delta every day.
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The Mekong River is the agricultural heartland of Vietnam
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and home to 20% of the country's population.
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But the Mekong river doesn't just flow through Vietnam.
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It starts in the Tibetan plateau,
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also going through China, Myanmar,
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Laos, Thailand and Cambodia.
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So, to prevent people in Vietnam fleeing their homes,
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we need an international agreement.
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Another river, another problem, and a fresh legal approach.
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The Ganges in India: viewed as holy by millions of people,
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but it's also very polluted.
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To protect it, the river was, for 109 days,
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declared a legal person by a court in the state of Uttarakhand.
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It was given the same rights as a child:
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as it couldn't speak for itself, a board was appointed to speak for it.
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The Government eventually said this couldn't go on,
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as the river went beyond the limits of Uttarakhand.
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So, can the law protect the environment,
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as well as the people who are affected by it?
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We spoke to Francesco Sindico,
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a law professor from the University of Strathclyde,
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who works on the Climate Change Litigation Initiative,
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and asked if there were laws directly protecting the environment.
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We have a lot of smaller laws, if you want,
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that protect specific aspects of the environment –
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for example, rivers; for example, wetlands or biodiversity –
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but there is no such thing as one big law
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for every single country of the world
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that protects the whole environment.
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Now, having said that, if you think
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that climate change encapsulates everything,
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then the answer is slightly different.
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There is a law called the Paris Agreement
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that does try to deal with everything.
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There are lots of small laws that deal with specific things,
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and there is also the Paris Agreement on climate change –
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a major international agreement.
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But what does it actually do?
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So, the Paris Agreement does something very tricky, in a way:
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it tells the states that they can choose
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how to protect their environment and with...
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by doing so, climate change.
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Before the Paris Agreement, international law told countries:
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'You have to do this!'
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While now, with the Paris Agreement,
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international law is saying to the countries:
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'Tell me what you can do
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and then we will all work together towards that goal.'
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The Paris Agreement doesn't set laws or tell countries what to do.
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It set goals for climate change,
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but allows countries to decide how to meet them.
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But, with a specific problem –
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for example, flooding on the Mekong River –
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how could the law help?
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So, if a neighbouring country from Vietnam
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causes something that leads to a flood,
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which is significant, which creates a lot of damage,
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then Vietnam does have something in its weaponry, if you want:
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it can sue. It can bring to court that other state.
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But, if the... if the question is
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'how do we prevent that from happening?'
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then it's a much more difficult thing to ask.
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One country can sue another if they can prove they have caused something,
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like damaging flooding.
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He also explained how giving a river legal rights
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might not be such a strange idea.
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So, while in India it may not have worked,
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in other countries it has worked.
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So, in Colombia for example, a river has been given rights.
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But the reason it has worked is that,
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in addition to giving rights to the river,
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a commission has been created of guardian of the river
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and it's this institution, this taking it forward,
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that is proving successful
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in providing a better environment for the river
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and for the people who rely on the river.
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Other rivers have been protected this way.
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This was made more effective by also having a team of guardians
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to protect their rights.
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The law might not have much direct power to protect the environment,
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but our human rights are used to help keep it safe.
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We've also seen how the Paris Agreement
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encourages countries to take action:
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an example of laws keeping us
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and future generations safe.
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