The Role of Alternate Dispute Resolution in Mitigating Climate Change and Achieving Sustainable Development

Climate change is among the greatest existential challenges that are facing humanity in the 21 st century. In spite of the collective international actions with references to the international frameworks and organizations like the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), environmental degradation keeps growing. The traditional system of law especially in relation to environmental litigation has been found to fail in providing fair and prompt results because of delays in the process, technical ignorance, and institutional overload. Here, the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) options are being adopted as an expedient and dynamic legal tool to enable climate management, arbitrate environmental conflicts and realign development processes with sustainable ecological directives. In this paper, the author will discuss how ADR, in form of mediation, arbitration, and negotiation, could facilitate climate justice and environmental sustainability. It also discusses the loopholes of the current climate litigation system, the purpose of ADR in addressing SDGs, and case examples both national and global where ADR has effectively been utilized in solving complicated environmental issues. The paper, with the help of a multi-disciplinary approach based on law, environmental science, and development studies, attempts to add to the debate on how economic development can be reconciled with ecological preservation.