TOPFER. Klaus Töpfer, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, on Climate Justice.
Klaus Töpfer is Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (see: http://www.climatelaw.org/ ).
Klaus Töpfer, on the adoption of the Judges’ Johannesburg Principles on the Role of Law and Sustainable Development, August 2002: “The field of law has, in many ways, been the poor relation in the world-wide effort to deliver a cleaner, healthier and ultimately fairer world. We have over 500 international and regional agreements, treaties and deals covering everything from the protection of the ozone layer to the conservation of the oceans and seas. Almost all, if not all, countries have national environmental laws too. But unless these are complied with, unless they are enforced, then they are little more than symbols, tokens, paper tigers. This is an issue affecting billions of people who are effectively being denied their rights and one of not only national but regional and global concern. We are increasingly aware that what happens in one part of the world can affect (sic) in another part of the globe – be it toxic pollutants from Asia, Europe and North America contaminating the Arctic or the greenhouse gases of the industrialised regions triggering droughts or the melting of glaciers in the less industrialised ones.” [1].
[1]. Klaus Töpfer quoted in Climate Justice Programme, “Climate Justice: enforcing climate change law”: http://www.climatelaw.org/ .