The International Court of Justice on the mitigation obligations in the Paris Agreement

This article examines the ICJ’s interpretation of the Paris Agreement’s core mitigation obligations to determine how, on what basis, and to what effect the ICJ disciplined national determination in the operation of the Paris Agreement. In so doing, it analyses the extent to which the ICJ’s interpretation strengthens the legal character of the Paris Agreement’s mitigation obligations. It argues that while the ICJ’s interpretation strengthens the legal character of the Paris Agreement’s mitigation obligations along some dimensions, notably normative content, language and precision, along the dimensions of oversight and review, national determination is still dominant, thus potentially diluting the operational impact of the ICJ’s robust reframing of the Paris Agreement’s mitigation obligations.