Abstract
Climate change is now recognised by the scientific community as one of the main challenges of the twenty-first century, and the threat that it poses to our civilization has only recently started to be understood. In particular, climate change will probably have a disproportionate effect on coastal regions, as due to the forecasted increase in sea levels caused by rising greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere some low-lying areas could be submerged during the course of the century. Also, the potential for increased levels of tropical cyclone activity could devastate coastal areas due to the combined effect of storm surges and high waves. A number of these threats have already been recognised by the 4th United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC 4AR).
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Notes
- 1.
Contribution of Working Group II to the 4th Assessment Report of the IPCC (2007).
- 2.
Rayfuse (2009) p. 2. It is important to note that other countries, such as Palau for example, are likely to suffer greatly from the consequences of climate change highlighted in this book, though their existence will not be threatened to the same extent as those in the list above. In this sense many Archipelagic States in the Pacific Ocean have at least some non-atoll islands that have some higher mountains.
- 3.
In other areas, such as the densely populated Ganges, Mekong and Nile River deltas, a rise in sea level of 1 meter could affect 23.5 million people and reduce the land currently used for intensive agriculture by 1.5 million hectares. A sea level of around 2 m, which is already in the scenarios of some authors such as Vermeer and Rahmstorf (2009), could impact almost 25 m people in these deltas and render almost 2.5 million hectares of agricultural unproductive, according to Warmer et al. (2009), IV.
- 4.
According to this article a refugee is a person who must be outside their country of nationality or former residence; he or she has to have a fear persecution; and this fear of persecution must be for on grounds of race, nationality, religion, membership of a particular social group or political opinion; and the fear must be well-founded. Therefore, in international refugee law, environmental conditions might not be claimed as a basis for refugee protection. See also Renaud et al. (2007), p. 12; Conisbee and Simms (2003), pp. 17–19.
- 5.
Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States in its Art. 1 states that elements of statehood are (a) a permanent population; (b) a defined territory; (c) government; and (d) capacity to enter into relations with the other states.
- 6.
Rakova (2009).
- 7.
Barnett and Adger (2003), p. 323.
- 8.
Barnett and Adger (2003), p. 326.
- 9.
Soons (1990), p. 230.
- 10.
Gagain (2012), p. 80.
- 11.
- 12.
- 13.
See the cause of relocation at Campbell et al. (2005), p. 21.
- 14.
Brooking Institute –project on international displacement (2011), p. 26.
- 15.
Art. 1, European Union: Council of the European Union, Council Directive 2001/55/EC of 20 July 2001 on Minimum Standards for Giving Temporary Protection in the Event of a Mass Influx of Displaced Persons and on Measures Promoting a Balance of Efforts Between Member States in Receiving such Persons and Bearing the Consequences Thereof, 7 August 2001, OJ L.212-223 7.8.2001, 2001/55/EC.
- 16.
McAdam (2007), pp. 2–3.
- 17.
Weiss (1992), p. 385.
- 18.
Mimura et al. (2007).
- 19.
Mimura et al. (2007).
- 20.
See Grote (2011).
- 21.
As they would involve numerous meetings, require expensive legal consultancy fees and travel costs for top diplomats and officials.
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Yamamoto, L., Esteban, M. (2014). Introduction. In: Atoll Island States and International Law. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-38186-7_1
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