Introduction
Much of the rhetoric around the excruciatingly slow climate
change negotiations gives the impression that the process is stuck
in perpetual stasis. While there is some truth in this notion,
caused largely by the fact that the negotiations are primarily
driven by national rather than global interest, it is also true
that the imperative to keep country Parties at the negotiation
table, and the compromises that this entails when the table seats
virtually all of the world's nations, has resulted in the
development and/or elaboration of certain of the principles of
international environmental law.
The most recognisable international environmental legal
principle is that of sustainable development which has also become
a feature of many national legal systems, including South
Africa's. It is worth mentioning that the principle's
inclusion in this country's constitutional dispensation does
not mean that the parameters of the principles are clearly defined
or
