Alexander Zahar is Professor of International Law at Southwest University of Political Science and Law, Chongqing, China, and Honorary Professor at Macquarie Law School, Sydney, Australia. His research focuses on international climate change law and climate change law in China. Professor Zahar’s presentation challenged the use of human rights claims in climate mitigation lawsuits. Through an analysis of the unsuccessful lawsuit brought by Greenpeace against the government of Norway’s decision to award oil-and-gas exploration licenses, he contended that the argument that these licenses constitute a violation of Norwegians’ constitutional rights did not hold, and that such lawsuit missed it objective since the resulting shortage of supply of fossil fuels would be immediately substituted. In his interview, Prof Zahar further elaborated on his view of international climate law, which currently does not impose firm emissions’ reduction on states and does not regulate the production of fossil fuels. From his perspective, using human rights law to substitute this absence of international obligations is illegitimate and counterproductive.
Alexander Zahar是中国重庆西南政法大学国际法教授和澳大利亚悉尼麦考瑞法学院名誉教授。他的研究重点是国际气候变化法和中国的气候变化法。演讲中，Zahar教授对气候缓解诉讼中使用人权诉求提出了质疑。通过分析绿色和平组织对挪威政府授予石油和天然气勘探许可证的决定提起的诉讼未获成功，他认为这些许可证构成对挪威人宪法权利的侵犯的论点并不成立，且这类诉讼最终也无法达到目标，因为由此造成的化石燃料供应短缺会立即被其他国家替代。在采访中，Zahar教授进一步阐述了他对国际气候法的看法，该法律目前没有将企业的减排活动强加于国家，也没有规范化石燃料的生产。在他看来，用人权法来替代这种国际义务的缺失，是不合法的，其结果最终会适得其反。