The world faced with acute poverty, deprivation and violation of human rights all cumulatively affecting sustainable development in the developing economies met in September, 2000 and put in place what was termed Millennium Declaration bench marked against 8 Principal goals under the auspices of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG)
One of the key issues addressed by the MDG is development and poverty eradication. The focus is the developing world and this is geared towards ensuring an enduring sustainable development. In the course of implementing the MDGs, the world witnessed a fundamental and astronomical change in the climate culminating in rising sea level, excessive heat, flooding to mention a few. In 2005, measures were put in place to curb the spread and effect of the changes through the Kyoto Protocol with the goal of reducing emission. The two international instruments are to be implemented at the domestic level to achieve the desired objective of sustainability. The major arm of government to ensure the proper implementation of the instruments is the judiciary within the context of municipal law.
This paper intends to address the effectiveness of the MDGs in the achievement of sustainable development in a developing economy using Nigeria as a case study and how the pursuit of sustainable development has been affected by climate change. The question to be addressed is how effective is the judicial machinery in the developing economies to curb the effect of climate change and the implementation challenges to ensure sustainable development? The paper will attempt to proffer solutions to the identified challenges of infrastructure, human and material resources undermining the achievement of the desired goal by 2015 as well as how adaptation and mitigation strategies put in place can be properly utilized by developing economies within the prevailing circumstances under which the judiciary is operating.