Open AccessThe commons as a paradigm shift for a regenerative
Author(s) -
Paulo Eduardo Ferreira de Magalhães,
Álvaro Costa,
Gabriela Morello,
André Vicente Guimarães,
Jose M. Viegas
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
anthropocenica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2184-8289
pISSN - 2184-8297
DOI - 10.21814/anthropocenica.3523
Subject(s) - commons , global commons , climate change , appropriation , corporate governance , earth system science , climate governance , law and economics , status quo , interdependence , political science , political economy of climate change , common good , business , harm , economic system , natural resource economics , environmental resource management , economics , ecology , law , philosophy , finance , politics , biology , linguistics
As the Earth System's trajectory approaches an irreversible path towards a "Hothouse Earth", societies remain unable to collectively ensure the maintenance of a stable climate. Nearly 30 years have passed after climate change was considered a Common Concern of Humankind, a status that remains the legal framework adopted by the Paris Agreement. A stable climate is a manifestation of the stable and well-defined functioning of the Earth System. Although intangible, a stable climate exists in the real world and is necessarily a common good for being limited, exhaustible, and non-excludable. Thus, a congruent system between the rules of appropriation (negative impacts) and provision of the global public good (positive impacts) is necessary for the effective management of the common good – stable climate. However, in the current legal framework that considers a stable climate a Common Concern of Humankind, a stable climate is invisible to our international legal system and economy, which makes it impossible for it to become an object of international governance. Here, the authors argue that the recognition of a stable climate as the Common Heritage of Humankind is the first and fundamental step for being able to act towards restoring and maintaining a stable climate.