THE ROLE OF LAW IN INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA

Abstract

International pollution goes beyond the state and national boundaries. International environmental
law is an essential tool to regulate the actions and relationship between states and other global
actors with regard to environmental protection. It is structured through treaties, conventions,
protocols and declarations at preventing, mitigating, or correcting environmental damage that
crosses state and national borders. It argues that international environmental law performs at least
seven connected functions which includes to declare environmental values, allocates duties among
States and non-State actors, structures cooperation, prevents transboundary harm, converts
scientific risk into regulatory standards, creates procedures for participation and accountability,
and supplies remedies where environmental harm violates public or private rights. However, there
are still gaps and challenges. Many environmental treaties depend on consent and reporting rather
than coercive enforcement. Global environmental burdens are unevenly distributed. The States
least responsible for degradation are often the most exposed to climate change, biodiversity loss,
desertification and pollution. In Africa, and particularly in Nigeria, the law has generated
important institutions and rights language, but effectiveness is undermined by weak enforcement,
fragmented mandates, inadequate finance, insecurity, regulatory overlap and a continuing
development model that is not sustainable. This work evaluates the development of international
environmental law from Stockholm and Rio to the Paris Agreement, the Kunming-Montreal Global
Biodiversity Framework, the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, the
ITLOS climate advisory opinion of 2024, and the ICJ climate advisory opinion of 2025.