This article examines benefit-sharing in the context of climate finance. Both benefitsharing and climate finance are complex, heterogeneous, and fast-developing fields,
where the interaction of international human rights law and climate law can create both
clarity and confusion. Benefit-sharing as a means for greater equity and ...
This article examines benefit-sharing in the context of climate finance. Both benefitsharing and climate finance are complex, heterogeneous, and fast-developing fields,
where the interaction of international human rights law and climate law can create both
clarity and confusion. Benefit-sharing as a means for greater equity and fairness is
increasingly used or included in materials on climate finance, despite lacking clear
conceptualization in this context. The article does three things. First, it establishes
benefit-sharing as an emerging obligation in human rights law and environmental law.
Next, it explores how benefit-sharing appears in the climate regime, with a view to
determining whether benefit-sharing has a distinct meaning in this context—and, if so,
what it is. The article argues that both the meaning and the practice of benefit-sharing in
climate finance are incoherent. Third, the article interrogates the possibilities and
problems of adopting universalized norms of benefit-sharing in this context, and
suggests some places where norms might be beneficial.
