THE LEGAL CHALLENGES OF THE INTERNATIONAL PROTECTION OF BIODIVERSITY IN THE FACE OF THE CLIMATE CRISIS - DOI: 10.12818/P.0304-2340.2025v87p41

Abstract

The article examines the challenges that climate change poses to the international legal regime for the protection of biodiversity, framing the climate crisis as a legally destabilizing phenomenon. Based on a normative and systemic analysis of the main environmental treaties, combined with doctrinal contributions and the decision-making practice of the Conferences of the Parties (COPs) and international courts, the study identifies two central weaknesses in the current legal architecture. The first stems from the conservative character of biodiversity norms, which seek to preserve a static ecological state, at odds with the transformations induced by climate change; the second concerns the normative fragmentation between the biodiversity and climate change regimes. In light of this diagnosis, the study highlights the need to incorporate ecosystem-based adaptation strategies and to acknowledge the interpretative role of COP decisions as instruments of soft law and subsequent interpretation under the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. Furthermore, it advocates a systemic and integrated interpretation of environmental treaties, pursuant to Article 31(3)(c) of the Vienna Convention, in order to harmonize obligations and prevent contradictions. The article concludes that only a dynamic, interconnected, and adaptive reading of international environmental law can ensure the effective protection of biodiversity in the face of the escalating climate crisis.

KEYWORDS: Climate change. Biodiversity. International environmental law. Systemic interpretation. Conferences of the Parties.