International environmental law is the set of agreements and principles that reflect the world's collective effort to manage our transition to the Anthropocene by resolving our most serious environmental problems, including climate change, ozone depletion and the mass extinction of wildlife. Similarly, global conferences often become platforms for large-scale protests and awareness-raising campaigns led by global civil society, which has become increasingly alert and determined to defend our environment. Global environmental problems cannot be solved by national environmental regulations alone. Action at the international level is required to effectively protect the environment.
For this reason, the fields governed by international law also include international environmental law, which aims to protect the global environment. In the authors' view, the international and European level of standard-setting and improving compliance with international environmental law is increasingly interdependent. Current issues of international concern covered by environmental law include climate change, including ozone depletion and global warming, desertification, destruction of rainforests, marine plastic pollution of ships, international trade in endangered species of extinction (i.) the international community realized that an international approach to environmental issues was required. The growth of international environmental law as a separate area of public international law began in the 1970s with the Stockholm Conference on the Environment in 1972. Daniel Bodansky demonstrates, with the help of examples, that existing international law of armed conflict and international environmental law failed to prevent even serious environmental damage, e.
International environmental law developed as a subset of international law in the mid-twentieth century. After 15 years, an international arbitration panel established the “polluter pays” principle, a fundamental foundation of international environmental law. International treaties are the most recent and effective source of international environmental law.
