Environmental Policy and Law - Volume 52, issue 5-6

Authors: Desai, Bharat H. | Mandal, Moumita

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: There is a reality of creeping adverse effects of climate change. The human imprint on it has been affirmed by various global processes including 21 May 2019 recognition by the Anthropocene Working Group. It has emerged as a planetary crisis. By 2050 climate change could see 4% of global annual economic output lost to the tune of $23 trillion and may hit many poorer parts of the world disproportionately. Though entire populations are affected by climate change, women and girls suffer the most. Due to their traditional roles, women are heavily dependent on natural resources. As a consequence of natural …disasters and during Covid-19 pandemic in 2020-22, women have faced heightened risks to different forms of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). They suffer from a lack of protection, privacy, and mental trauma. Effects of climate change results in the feminization and intensification of vulnerability of women and girls. As there is double victimization of women both as human beings and because of their gender. Growing evidence suggests role of climate change heightened violence against women and girls. There is no specific international legal instrument dealing with SGBV against women during and after the climate change induced disasters. The texts of the three specific climate change treaties (1992 UNFCCC, 1997 Kyoto Protocol and 2015 Paris Agreement) do not address this crucial aspect. It has been given attention only through the recent decisions of the Conference of the Parties (COP). Due to serious psychological and bodily harm SGBV causes to women, it needs to be explicitly factored in respective international legal instruments on climate change and disasters. There are ignorance, denials and lack of adequate attention by scholars and decision-makers in the field to address adverse effects of climate change in causing heightened violence against women and girls. Hence, this study makes a modest effort to deduce and analyze –from scattered initiatives, scholarly literature in different areas, existing international legal instruments and intergovernmental processes – the growing causal relationship between climate change and SGBV especially against women and girls as well as the phenomenal cost so as to suggest a way out for our better common future. It is a new challenge for international law that needs to be duly addressed in a timely manner. Show more

Keywords: Climate change, heightened risk, women and girls, sexual and gender-based violence, international law, feminization, economic cost, intensification of vulnerability

DOI: 10.3233/EPL-219049

Citation: Environmental Policy and Law, vol. 52, no. 5-6, pp. 413-427, 2022

Authors: Maguire, Rowena | Carter, George | Mangubhai, Sangeeta | Lewis, Bridget | Harris Rimmer, Susan

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract:  Climate change is accelerating gender inequality, as climate extremes amplify inequalities, vulnerabilities, negative gender norms, with Gender-Based Violence (GBV) rates increase during times of disaster. Yet the gendered experiences of climate change have to date been inadequately factored into climate law and policy-making, with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) traditionally limiting its focus to ‘gender balance’ in representation within the regime. This article explores mainstreaming gender considerations within the UNFCCC by reflecting upon where we have come from, where we are now, and where we are going with respect with gender. While there was very little …progress in the early days of the UNFCCC, this article shows that from 2001 to the present there have been a series of small gains, which this article will explain and critique. Much remains to be done, however, for gender within the UNFCCC. In recommending future actions, it draws particularly on lessons from the Pacific and Australian experiences. Show more

Keywords: Gender, feminism, climate change, UNFCCC, Lima work program on gender, gender focal points, gender COP

DOI: 10.3233/EPL-219048

Citation: Environmental Policy and Law, vol. 52, no. 5-6, pp. 429-443, 2022

Authors: Morgera, Elisa | Lennan, Mitchell

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: The 2021 Glasgow Climate Pact brought the ocean into the international climate regime, and the 2022 Sharm el-Sheikh COP27 of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has finally ushered the world into a special fund to respond to loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change, including on the human rights of present and future generations. But much remains to be clarified about how ocean-based mitigation, adaptation, finance and technology will contribute to inter-generational equity. To shed light on these issues, this article starts from the premise that the ocean is an essential but little-understood …component of the interdependency between climate change and human rights. It is followed by an exploration of the importance of a healthy ocean for children’s human rights as a way to advance inter-generational equity under the 30-year-old (1992–2022) UNFCCC through systemic interpretation. The upcoming General Comment on children’s rights and the environment with a special focus on climate change (General Comment No. 26) by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child presents an opportunity to clarify the role of existing international human rights obligations in strengthening intergenerational equity at the climate-ocean interface on the basis of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). This appears vital to ensure coordination across intergovernmental bodies and national government departments to safeguard ocean-dependent children’s human rights through climate policy and action at different levels. Show more

Keywords: UNFCCC, UNCRC, Glasgow Climate Pact, ocean-climate nexus, ocean-dependent children’s human rights, inter-generational equity, COP27

DOI: 10.3233/EPL-219052

Citation: Environmental Policy and Law, vol. 52, no. 5-6, pp. 445-459, 2022

Article Type: Other

Citation: Environmental Policy and Law, vol. 52, no. 5-6, pp. 461-461, 2022

Authors: Tirumurti, T.S.

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: The current name of the game on climate action by the Global North is called “Backtracking” –backtracking on almost every commitment made by them at the various Conference of Parties (COP) held under the Unites Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This comes even as the UNFCCC turned 30 on 04 June 2022. The article seeks to place under scanner issues at stake that will impinge upon the future trajectory of the climate change regulatory regime.

Keywords: UNFCCC, COP, Paris Agreement, mitigation, adaptation, loss and damage, finance and technology, global net-zero, net-negative, LiFE, global Stock take

DOI: 10.3233/EPL-219046

Citation: Environmental Policy and Law, vol. 52, no. 5-6, pp. 463-471, 2022

Authors: Junker, Kirk W. | Münster, Saskia | Shinde, Mrinalini

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: We are already witnessing climate-induced migration and thus must prepare to address the next decades of even more human mobility as a consequence of the climate disruption crisis. Fifty years after the Stockholm Conference, international environmental law still needs solutions to protect those persons most vulnerable to environmental harm. This paper seeks to focus on the concept of reparative justice as the theme and attitude of legal solutions, so as to refocus legal tools to provide relief to those persons who are displaced and dispossessed because of the climate disruption crisis. In this paper, we present possibilities for a reparative …climate justice regime that could help to break the current cycle of harm and denial in which states are currently embroiled within international climate negotiations. This focus considers how careful solutions such as credit within the financial mechanisms under the Paris Agreement, in a spirit of trust and solidarity, could contribute to legal solutions to climate migration problems. The paper first iterates the scope and history of climate-induced migration in international law and then presents the case for reparations as a strong legal response to climate-induced migration, before finally exploring the legal avenues within international climate law wherein reparative justice and financing could potentially operate. Show more

Keywords: Climate-induced migration, environmental migrants, environmental refugees, slow-onset events, climate change, UNFCCC, reparations, climate justice, reparative justice, trust fund, loss and damage

DOI: 10.3233/EPL-219053

Citation: Environmental Policy and Law, vol. 52, no. 5-6, pp. 473-485, 2022