Fleisch auf dem Verhandlungstisch – Die Tierhaltung im völkerrechtlichen Klimaschutzsystem des Pariser Abkommens

This article analyses which requirements the international climate protection system of the Paris Agreement sets for climate protection measures in animal agriculture. In line with its character as a framework regulation, the Paris Agreement contains several implicit and general obligations relating to livestock farming. For example, the obligation to take measures in support of the Paris Agreements’s temperature goal pursuant to Art. 2 para. 1 lit. a; Art. 3; Art. 4 para. 2 PA also implies an obligation to take climate protection measures in animal agriculture. However, the framework of the Paris Agreement has been filled in by the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and by agreements at subsequent Conferences of the Parties (COPs) in a disappointing manner. The extent to which countries are addressing animal agriculture in their NDCs is insufficient to limit global warming to well below 2°C, both in terms of the number of countries doing so and the quality of the measures envisaged. Moreover, in the agreements adopted at subsequent COPs, including COP28, Parties continued their problematic tendency of excluding livestock from mitigation efforts from the outset, or they relied solely on innovation or incentives for livestock-related mitigation. The article argues for a global animal welfare law, both as a means of climate protection and as a counterweight to the numerous calls for greater efficiency in animal agriculture that have been raised on the grounds of climate change.