Climate, pollution, forest, land, and circular-economy instruments. Restoration and clean-air statutes sit beside the plastics negotiation. Also here: the global mercury treaty; the hazardous wastes trade rules; the persistent organic pollutants treaty; the prior informed consent procedure for certain hazardous chemicals and pesticides in trade; and the Latin American and Caribbean regional agreement on environmental information, participation and justice.
Texts that are in force: a statute, regulation, directive, or treaty that already binds someone.
Paris Agreement under the UNFCCC; adopted 12 December 2015 (COP21); entered into force 4 November 2016
The main climate treaty still in force. It binds parties to NDCs and a well-below-2°C / 1.5°C temperature goal: not a global emissions cap written into the text.
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Montreal Protocol (1987, as adjusted/amended); Kigali Amendment adopted 15 October 2016, HFC controls in force from 1 January 2019 for Parties for which it entered into force
The ozone treaty that actually cut ODS production and trade. Kigali later added HFCs for climate: still Montreal machinery, not a second UNFCCC.
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Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 May 2023 on deforestation-free products
An EU market rule: listed commodities must be deforestation-free and legal to place or export. Enacted 2023; main duties apply from late 2026 / mid-2027 by operator size: not a UN forest treaty.
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Directive 2003/87/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (as amended) establishing a system for greenhouse gas emission allowance trading
The EU’s cap-and-trade for large emitters. A declining allowance cap with auctioning and a market stability reserve: not a consumer carbon tax and not Paris itself.
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Regulation (EU) 2024/1991 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 June 2024 on nature restoration
A binding restoration regulation: not a strategy paper. Draft national plans were due 1 September 2026; the Commission is assessing them.
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42 U.S.C. § 7401 et seq. (1970; major amendments 1977 and 1990)
The main U.S. air-pollution statute. EPA’s own peer-reviewed cost-benefit studies are the usual sourced claim: not a slogan.
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Directive (EU) 2019/904 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 June 2019 on the reduction of the impact of certain plastic products on the environment
A real product ban and consumption-cut rule for a listed set of items: not a global plastic-production cap.
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Forestry Law No. 7575 (1996); PSA administered by FONAFIFO
A 1996 forestry law that pays landowners to keep forest standing. It is one instrument, not the only reason the canopy returned.
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Постановление Президента Туркменистана «О развитии садоводства и озеленении в Туркменистане», 9 November 1992
A 1992 presidential decree, not a Tajikistan statute and not “three trees.” The two-tree line is civic-duty language; the operative articles organise campaigns.
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Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan No. ЗРУ-916 / O‘RQ-916 of 29 February 2024, inserting Article 49¹ into the Law “On the protection and use of flora” (No. 543-I of 26 December 1997, restated by ЗРУ-409 of 21 September 2016)
A 2024 statute: plant at least one hundred saplings after illegal felling of a valuable non-forest-fund tree. Penalty and care duty: not an annual citizen quota.
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Convention on Biological Diversity; adopted in Nairobi on 22 May 1992; opened for signature in Rio de Janeiro on 5 June 1992; entered into force on 29 December 1993
The main United Nations biodiversity treaty. It sets three objectives: conserve biological diversity, use it sustainably, and share the benefits from genetic resources fairly. Parties must plan and report. It is not a single global list of species.
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Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework; Decision 15/4 of the 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, adopted 19 December 2022 in Montreal
The current global biodiversity plan under the Convention on Biological Diversity. It sets four goals for 2050 and twenty-three targets for 2030, including the widely cited aim to protect at least 30 percent of land and sea. It was adopted as a decision of the Conference of the Parties, not as a second biodiversity treaty.
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Convention on Wetlands of International Importance especially as Waterfowl Habitat; done at Ramsar, Iran, on 2 February 1971; entered into force on 21 December 1975 (as amended)
The oldest global wetlands treaty. Parties name wetlands of international importance for a public list and commit to using wetlands in their territory with care. It is a list of sites and a duty to look after them, not a code for the wildlife trade.
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Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters; done at Aarhus on 25 June 1998; entered into force on 30 October 2001
The United Nations treaty on environmental democracy. It gives the public rights to environmental information, a say in certain decisions, and a way to seek review in a court or another independent body. These are rights about procedure, not a statute that sets pollution limits.
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Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction; adopted in New York on 19 June 2023; entered into force on 17 January 2026
The high-seas biodiversity agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. It covers marine genetic resources, tools for protecting areas of ocean (including marine protected areas beyond national jurisdiction), environmental impact assessments, and help with skills and technology. It entered into force on 17 January 2026.
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Minamata Convention on Mercury; adopted at Kumamoto on 10 October 2013; entered into force on 16 August 2017
The global treaty on mercury. Parties control mercury supply and trade, products, manufacturing processes, artisanal and small-scale gold mining, air emissions, releases to land and water, storage, waste and contaminated sites. The United Nations Treaty Collection lists 154 Parties.
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Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal; adopted at Basel on 22 March 1989; entered into force on 5 May 1992
The main global treaty on shipping hazardous wastes across borders. Parties must ensure environmentally sound management, use prior informed consent for covered shipments, and treat illegal traffic as a crime. The United Nations Treaty Collection lists 191 Parties.
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Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants; adopted at Stockholm on 22 May 2001; entered into force on 17 May 2004
The global treaty on persistent organic pollutants. Parties eliminate or restrict listed chemicals that stay in the environment for years, travel far, accumulate in living tissue and harm health. The United Nations Treaty Collection lists 186 Parties.
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Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade; adopted at Rotterdam on 10 September 1998; entered into force on 24 February 2004
The global treaty that makes prior informed consent binding for listed hazardous chemicals and pesticides in international trade. Importing Parties decide whether to allow a shipment, and exporting Parties must respect that decision. The United Nations Treaty Collection lists 169 Parties.
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Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation and Justice in Environmental Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean; adopted at Escazú, Costa Rica, on 4 March 2018; entered into force on 22 April 2021
The regional environmental democracy treaty for Latin America and the Caribbean. It gives the public rights to environmental information, participation in decisions and access to justice, and it includes specific duties to protect people who defend the environment. The United Nations Treaty Collection lists 19 Parties and 24 signatures.
Read the articleBills in a legislature and formal intergovernmental negotiations. A first reading, and a round of an intergovernmental negotiating committee, are stages on the way to a later decision.
Useful proposed laws that remain proposals. Some were formally filed and then withdrawn or left to lapse. Read them as proposals.
