INTRODUCTION

To deal effectively with global environmental problems, such as climate change, we need global cooperation. Yet all too many developing countries lack the economics, infrastructures, and technical capacity to tackle these problems; therefore, developing countries need to be accorded differential treatment in the international environmental agreements adopted to prevent or mitigate the problems, if these agreements are to succeed.. This study addresses a very current, cutting-edge, and controversial issue of great importance to international environmental law and its success in protecting a livable planet.

 In an attempt to get beyond words to action, this book looks at global environmental problems from the perspective of getting developing countries more involved in solving these problems. How can they best be brought into the realm of international environmental regulation and gotten o nto the pathway to sustainable development? The idea is that the new trend of using incentives to promote developing country participation in international environmental agreements – in effect, giving them differential treatment – must continue and become part of the framework of international environment