Category Archives: Adaptation

Adaptation, Climate Change, Climate In/Justice, Development, Environmental Justice, Environmental Law, Environmental Protection, Environmental Rights, Equality, Human Rights, Indigenous Rights, International Law, Policy Issues, Politics and International Relations, Self-Determination, Socio-Economic Rights, Water

Climate Change and Indigenous Peoples: The Search for Legal Remedies (eds. R. S. Abate and E. A. Kronk)

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Editors

Randall S. Abate and Elizabeth Ann Kronk

Keywords

environment, climate change, environmental law, law – academic, environmental law, human rights, law and development, politics and public policy, human rights, Asia, Kenya, Arctic, South America, Pacific Island Nations, Australia, New Zealand, Africa, indigenous rights, sovereignty, climate justice, adaptation, equality, water rights, Aboriginal communities

Abstract

Indigenous peoples occupy a unique niche within the climate justice movement, as many indigenous communities live subsistence lifestyles that are severely disrupted by the effects of climate change. Additionally, in many parts of the world, domestic law is applied differently to indigenous peoples than it is to their non-indigenous peers, further complicating the quest for legal remedies. The contributors to this book bring a range of expert legal perspectives to this complex discussion, offering both a comprehensive explanation of climate change-related problems faced by indigenous communities and a breakdown of various real world attempts to devise workable legal solutions. Regions covered include North and South America (Brazil, Canada, the US and the Arctic), the Pacific Islands (Fiji, Tuvalu and the Federated States of Micronesia), Australia and New Zealand, Asia (China and Nepal) and Africa (Kenya).

PART I INTRODUCTORY CONTEXT AND PRINCIPLES
1. Commonality among unique indigenous communities: an
introduction to climate change and its impacts on indigenous
peoples 3
Randall S. Abate and Elizabeth Ann Kronk
2. Introduction to international and domestic climate change
regulation 19
Deepa Badrinarayana
3. Introduction to indigenous peoples’ status and rights under
international human rights law 39
Lillian Aponte Miranda
4. Introduction to indigenous sovereignty under international
and domestic law 63
Eugenia Charles-Newton and Elizabeth Ann Kronk
5. Climate change and indigenous peoples: comparative models
of sovereignty 79
Rebecca Tsosie
6. Indigenous environmental knowledge and climate change
adaptation 96
Maxine Burkett

Climate change and indigenous peoples
PART II GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES
International Organizations
7. REDD+: its potential to melt the glacial resistance to
recognize human rights and indigenous peoples’ rights at the
World Bank 123
Leonardo A. Crippa
South America
8. REDD+ and indigenous peoples in Brazil 151
Andrew Long
9. REDD+: climate justice or a new face of manifest destiny?
Lessons drawn from the indigenous struggle to resist
colonization of Ojibwe Forests in the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries 178
Philomena Kebec
Lower 48 States of the United States of America
10. Natural resource development and indigenous peoples 199
Sarah Krakoff and Jon-Daniel Lavallee
11. Climate change and tribal water rights: removing barriers to
adaptation strategies 218
Judith V. Royster
Arctic
12. Canadian indigenous peoples and climate change: the
potential for Arctic land claims agreements to address
changing environmental conditions 243
Sophie Thériault
13. America’s Arctic: climate change impacts on indigenous
peoples and subsistence 263
Peter Van Tuyn
14. The Saami facing the impacts of global climate change 287
Irina L. Stoyanova
15. Complexities of addressing the impacts of climate change on
indigenous peoples through international law petitions: a case
study of the Inuit Petition to the Inter-American Commission
on Human Rights 313
Hari M. Osofsky

Pacific Island Nations
16. Climate change, legal governance and the Pacific Islands: an
overview 339
Erika J. Techera
17. Fiji: climate change, tradition and Vanua 363
Victoria Sutton
18. Islands in the stream: addressing climate change from a small
island developing state perspective 377
Clement Yow Mulalap
19. The rising tide of international climate litigation: an
illustrative hypothetical of Tuvalu v Australia 409
Keely Boom
Asia
20. The impacts of climate change on indigenous populations in
China and legal remedies 441
Wenxuan Yu, Jingjing Liu and Po Dong
21. Changing climate and changing rights: exploring legal and
policy frameworks for indigenous mountain communities in
Nepal to face the challenges of climate change 468
J. Mijin Cha
Australia and New Zealand
22. Climate change impacts to Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander communities in Australia 493
Megan Davis
23. Negotiating climate change: Māori, the Crown and New
Zealand’s Emission Trading Scheme 508
Naomi Johnstone
Africa
24. Climate change, law and indigenous peoples in Kenya:
Ogiek and Maasai narratives 535
Patricia Kameri-Mbote and Elvin Nyukuri

Citation

2013. Climate Change and Indigenous Peoples: The Search for Legal Remedies, eds. Randall S. Abate and Elizabeth Ann Kronk. Cheltenham: Elgar.

Paper

Climate Change and Indigenous Peoples: The Search for Legal Remedies

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Adaptation, Climate Change, Development, Disaster, Environmental Law, Environmental Protection, Environmental Refugees, Environmental Rights, Human Rights, Humanitarian Law, International Law, United Nations, Vulnerability

The Contribution of Human Rights as an Additional Perspective on Climate Change Impacts in the Pacific (S. Tully)

Author(s)

Stephen Tully

Keywords

Climate Change, Human Rights, Climate Impacts, United Nations, Pacific Islands, Resettlement, International Humanitarian Law, International Environmental Law, Environmental Refugees

Abstract

The adverse impacts of climate change include temperature variations, lost biodiversity and more frequent extreme weather events. In particular, low-lying Pacific Island countries and territories will be inundated if predicted sea level rises eventuate. These impacts threaten the continued enjoyment by Pacific Islanders of their fundamental human rights. Rising sea levels threatens their personal safety, continued good health, secure access to proper means of subsistence including food and water and the habitability of coastal settlements. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change encourages developed states to adopt measures that mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and financially support adaptation activity undertaken by developing countries. However, several states lack the requisite political will, financial support is inadequate, adaptation measures are limited and small island developing states are becoming increasingly vulnerable. This article provides an overview of climate change impacts within the Pacific region in human rights terms. It argues that the strategy of adaptation, although consistent with the sustainable development agenda, is limited as an effective long-term response to sea level rise. It proposes an international framework that ensures, in the worst-case scenario, that affected individuals are relocated and resettled within other states. It draws upon existing and emergent legal regimes with respect to humanitarian assistance, natural disasters, maritime law concerning search and rescue, internally displaced persons, the environmental refugee concept and the obligations of interstate cooperation arising under international environmental law in the event of transboundary harm. This framework will be most effective if underpinned by the many positive contributions to be made by the paradigm for the protection of human rights.

Citation

(2007) 5 New Zealand Journal of Public International Law 175

Paper

The Contribution of Human Rights as an Additional Perspective on Climate Change Impacts in the Pacific

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Adaptation, Climate Change, Environmental Law, Land Rights, Mitigation, Policy Issues, Pollution, Regulation

Climate Change Adaptation and the Structural Transformation of Environmental Law (J. B. Ruhl)

Author(s)

J. B. Ruhl

Keywords

climate change, environmental law, greenhouse gas emissions, adaptation, mitigation, policy, pollution, land law, decision methods, regulation, conciliation

Abstract

The path of environmental law has come to a cliff called climate change, and there is no turning around. As climate change policy dialogue emerged in the 1990s, however, the perceived urgency of attention to mitigation strategies designed to regulate sources of greenhouse gas emissions quickly snuffed out meaningful progress on the formulation of adaptation strategies designed to respond to the effects of climate change on humans and the environment. Only recently has this “adaptation deficit” become a concern now actively included in climate change policy debate. Previously treating talk of adaptation as taboo, the climate change policy world has begrudgingly accepted it into the fold as the reality of failed efforts to achieve global mitigation policy has combined with the scientific evidence that committed warming will continue the trend of climate change well into the future regardless of mitigation policy success.

But do not expect adaptation policy to play out for environmental law the way mitigation policy has and is likely to continue. Mitigation policy has been framed as an initiative primarily within the domain of environmental law – a form of pollution control on steroids – and thus it will be environmental law that makes the first move and other policy realms that apply support or pushback. By contrast, environmental law does not “own” adaptation policy; rather, numerous policy fronts will compete simultaneously for primacy and priority as people demand protection from harms and enjoyment of benefits that play out as climate change moves relentlessly forward. This makes it all the more pressing for environmental law, early in the nation’s formulation of adaptation policy, to find its voice and establish its place in the effort to close the adaptation deficit.

Toward that purpose, this Article examines the context and policy dynamics of climate change adaptation and identifies ten trends that will have profound normative and structural impacts on how environmental law fits in: 1) Shift in emphasis from preservationism to transitionalism in natural resources conservation policy. 2) Rapid evolution of property rights and liability rules associated with natural capital adaptation resources. 3) Accelerated merger of water law, land use law, and environmental law. 4) Incorporation of a human rights dimension in climate change adaptation policy. 5) Catastrophe and crisis avoidance and management as an overarching adaptation policy priority. 6) Frequent reconfigurations of trans-policy linkages and trade-offs at all scales and across scales. 7) Shift from “front end” decision methods relying on robust predictive capacity to “back end” decision methods relying on active adaptive management. 8) Greater variety and flexibility in regulatory instruments 9) Increased reliance on multi-scalar governance networks. 10) Conciliation.

Citation

(2009) 40 Environmental Law 343

Paper

Climate Change Adaptation and the Structural Transformation of Environmental Law

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Adaptation, Ecological Footprint, Emissions, Environment v Economy, Environmental Law, Human Rights, International Law, Mitigation, Policy Issues

The Janus-Head of Human Rights and Climate Change: Adaptation and Mitigation (O. W. Pedersen)

Author(s)

Ole W. Pedersen

Keywords

Climate Change, Human Rights, Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation, Clean Development Mechanism, Kyoto Protocol, Risk Assessment, Adaptation, Mitigation

Abstract

This article examines the role human rights instruments play when states seek to adopt regulatory initiatives in the name of addressing climate change. The article argues that a series of important restrictions exist. Governments responding to climate change need to take into account existing human rights. This observation is particularly relevant for countries implementing Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) projects and for countries taking part in Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects under the Kyoto Protocol. The article likewise argues that special human rights obligations arise in relation to the risks associated with climate change. These place on states a responsibility to secure risk assessment and risk communication while taking steps to mitigate climate change-associated risks. While the article considers these requirements to constitute an absolute minimum, it is argued that they can offer a way of securing that national governments are accountable when it comes to climate change responses. On the other hand, it will be shown that these human rights restrictions will sometimes have the potential to run counter to the adoption of effective climate change responses.

Citation

(2011) 80 Nordic Journal of International law 403-423

Paper

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Adaptation, Climate Change, Human Rights, International Law, Mitigation, Policy Issues

A Human Rights-Based Approach to Climate Change (M. Orellana)

Author(s)

Marcos A. Orellana

Keywords

Human rights, Climate Change, Training, Education, International Human Rights Law, Policy, Development, Adaptation, Mitigation, Capacity Building

Excerpt

Introduction

This paper explores human rights standards and mechanisms
relevant to addressing climate change, with a focus on human
rights training and education. It also discusses how climate change
policies and measures can affect a wide range of human rights
recognized by international human rights law. Additionally, this
paper analyzes how a human rights-based approach can help to
integrate human rights standards into climate change policy and
development cooperation to achieve effective and equitable implementation of human rights. Finally, it concludes that human rights training and education effectively contribute to the development of capacities, for both rights-holders and duty-bearers; ensure a basic understanding of human rights law; and, integrate human rights standards into climate change policy.

This paper first discusses the human rights-based approach to
development and climate change respectively. Next, it analyzes how
a wide range of human rights are affected by the physical impacts of
climate change as well as by adaptation and mitigation measures.
Then it will discuss the importance of the linkages between human
rights and climate change for the purposes of addressing human
rights violations caused by climate change; protecting the human
rights of vulnerable groups; and, facilitating international cooperation in protecting human rights from climate change. Finally, the paper concludes that human rights training and education can contribute to achieving the effective and equitable realization of human rights in the face of climatic uncertainties.

Citation

(2012) The Human Rights-Based Approach: A Field of Action for Human Rights Education, pp53-63 (Geneva: Cifedhop)

Paper

A Human Rights-Based Approach to Climate Change

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