Water Under the Paris Agreement: An Unexploited Potential?

Since some solutions are unsound, the Rio Conventions explore nature-based solutions to tackle environmental issues. The Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) promotes nature-based approaches, while Egypt has been invited to integrate water into the Conference of the Parties (COP 27) negotiations. However, despite the benefits of water for human and environmental systems highlighted by the scholarship, gaps exist in the knowledge concerning the status of water within the international climate regime. This paper analyses policies, legal resources, and literature on individual rights and global warming to investigate water’s current state and potential future roles within the Paris Agreement. This study first reviews the existing scholarship to explore water-related complexities and challenges, the specific gaps and weaknesses in the current international climate change regime that water status might address, and why and how water is an unexploited potential. It then examines the concept of water within the Paris Agreement regime and its value within the Anthropocene. It then explores the potential role of water in achieving the Paris Accord objective. The paper suggests that water could be a grundnorm of the jus cogens type for the global warming regime. In conclusion, water is an unexploited potential under the Paris Agreement. Findings from this study can inform the efforts of the International Law Commission (ILC) to amend the jus cogens principles that underpin international law.