Climate Change and Environmental Degradation: A Threat to Global Security
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Published:
May 15, 2019
Keywords:
Climate Change, Environmental Degradation, Global Security, Future Generations, International Law
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Abstract
There is the global recognition that climate change and environmental degradation are caused by human activities which have considerably increased the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases. The consequences of climate change are: droughts which adversely affect the global poor who are engaged in agriculture; storm surges which destroy local infrastructures, housing and farm crops; and the rise of sea levels which adversely affect the inhabitants of small island states which could eventually be totally submerged. The implication is that an indefinite number of people are displaced. The serious repercussion for international security is that the world will very soon be flooded with climate refugees with no legal status under the Geneva Convention. Three urgent responses are required: (i) consideration of the right of future generations not to suffer from the adverse effects of climate change, (ii) assessing the relevant conceptions of global justice, and (iii) examination of existing protocols and international laws that provide effective defensive responses to climate change and attainment of sustainable environmental security and global peace.
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Osawe, A. I. . (2019). Climate Change and Environmental Degradation: A Threat to Global Security. African Journal of Stability and Development (AJSD), 12(1), 87–105. https://doi.org/10.53982/ajsd.2019.1201.04-j
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India. New York: W.W. Norton and Company.
IISD, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Government of Denmark.
Biermann F., Boas I., 2010, “Preparing for a Warmer World: Towards a Global
Governance System to Protect Climate Refugees,” Global Environmental
Politics, Vol.10, No. 1, pp. 60-88.
Black, R., 2006. “New crops needed to avoid famines,” On BBC News Web site,
December 3, 2006. Available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/sci-ence/nature/
6200114.stm. Accessed 25/05/19.
Brown O., Hammill A., McLeman R. 2007. “Climate Change as “the” New Security
Threat: Implications for Africa,” International Affairs, Vol. 83, No. 6, pp.1141–
1154.
Buzan B. 1991. People, States, and Fear: An Agenda for International Security
Studies in the Post-Cold War era,. New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf
Dodo, M.K.. 2014. Examining the potential impacts of climate change on international
security: EU-Africa partnership on climate change. SpringerPlus, 3(1).
Commission on Human Security .2001. Established in response to the UN
SecretaryGeneral’s call at the 2000 Millennium Summit for a world “free from
want” and “free from fear.” The Commission consisted of twelve prominent
international figures, including Mrs. Sadako Ogata (former UN High
Commissioner for Refugees) and Professor Amartya Sen (1998 Nobel
Economics Prize Laureate). 13th Copenhagen Climate Conference in December
2009, www.czes.org/ international/negotiations/cop-15/summary Note 15.
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC 1992); www.unfccc.int/
essentialbackground/convention/background/items/1349.php Note 14.
Chellaney, B. 2011. Water: Asia’s New Battleground Washington DC: Georgetown
University Press.
Fagbohun, O. A. 2012. Climate Change and Green Economy: Law as Driver of
Change and Engine of Sustainability. Being a Paper Presented at the 2012
Edition of Lincolns Inn, Faculty of Law Lagos, Lagos State University Eminent
Personality Lecture on 28th June.
German Advisory Council on Global Change. 2007. World In Transition: Climate
Change as a Security Risk,” Berlin: German Advisory Council on Global
Change.
Grosseries, A. (2008a). Theories of Intergenerational Justice: A Synopsis. Surveys
and Perspectives Integrating Environment and Society, 1, 61-69.
Grosseries, A. (2008b). On Future Generations’ Future Rights. Journal of Politics
and Philosophy, 16(4), 464-474. http://dx.doi:10.1111/j.1467.9760.2008.00323 .x
Hill, T. E. 2000. Respect, Pluralism and Justice . Oxford: Oxford University Press.
https://doi.org/10.1093/0198238347.001.0001. Retrieved April 9, 2019.
Gutierrez, A.2018. “Secretary General’s Remarks on Climate Change,” Available
online at https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/statement/2018-09-10/
secretary-generals-remarks-climate-change-delivered. Retrieved April.9, 2019.
Hawken, P., A. Lovins and L.H. Lovins. 2000. Natural Capitalism. Boston, MA:
Back Bay Books.
IIED (2007). “Critical List: the 100 Nations most Vulnerable to climate change”
Sustainable Development Opinion, December.
IPCC. 2001. Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis, Impacts and Vulnerability.
Contribution of Working Group II to the Third Assessment Report on
Intergovernmental Panel on climate Change. Geneva: IPCC Secretariat.
IPCC. .2007. Climate Changes: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability – Summary
for Policymakers. Geneva: IPCC Secretariat
IPCC. 2014. Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of
Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Fifth Assessment
Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [ Edenhofer, O.,
R. Pichs-Madruga, Y. Sokona, E. Farahani, S. Kadner, K. Seyboth, A. Adler, I.
Baum, S. Brunner, P. Eickemeier, B. Kriemann, J. Savolainen, S. Schlomer, C.
von Stechow, T. Zwickel and J.C. Minx (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press
Council of Europe Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Dignity of
the Human Being. ilr.ccsenet.org International Law Research, Vol. 6, No. 1;
2017 120
Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change, 2007.
www.unfccc.int/kyoto-protocol/items/2830.php Note 14.
Klare, M.T. 2001. Resource Wars: New Landscape for Global Conflict.Henry Holt
and Company Lcc. Publisher.
Morelli, John, and Kelley Lockwood 2011. “Environmental Sustainability and
EHS 26 Journal of Environmental Sustainability – Volume 1: Professional
Responsibility.” Seventh Environmental Management Leadership Symposium.
2 May. 2011, Rochester, NY.
Myers N. 2002. “Environmental Refugees: A Growing Phenomenon of the 21st
Century. Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences, Vol. 357, No. 1420,
pp. 609-613.
Nozick, R. 1974. Anarchy, State, and Utopia. Oxford: Blackwell.
Parfit, D. 1987. Reasons and Persons . Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Oppermann, S.2017. Introducing Migrant Ecologies in an (Un)Bordered World.
Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, 24(2), pp.243-256.
Osawe, Anthony Ikhide; Ehisuoria Solomonn O. and Akhimien, Francis O. (2015).
Climate Change and Sustainable Development in Nigeria: The Role of Civil
Society. International Journal of Governance and Development, Vol. 4, No. 1.
Paris Agreement on Climate Change (2015), unfccc.int/Paris agreement/items/
9845 .pdf Note 16.
Pearson, J. 2016. Human Security versus Environmental Security: At Legal
Loggerheads. In M. E. Footer, J. Schmidt, N. D. White, & L. Davies-Brights
(Eds.), Security and International Law . Oxford: Hart Publishing.
Posci, M. 2016. Climate Change as a Threat to International Security. In M. E.
Footer, J. Schmidt, N. D. White, & L. Davies-Bright (Eds.), Security and
International Law. Oxford: Hart Publishing.
Rawls, J. 1993. Political Liberalism. New York: Columbia University Press.
Rawls, J. (1999a). A Theory of Justice (1972; Revised Edn.). Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Rawls, J. (1999b). The Law of Peoples. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Risse, M. 2012. On Global Justice. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Salako, S. E. 2017. Climate Change, Environmental Security and Global Justice.
International Law Research; Vol. 6, No. 1. Published by Canadian Centre of
Science and Education 119.
United Nations Environmental Programme [UNEP] (2007). Global Environmental
Outlook: Environment for Development. Valetta: Progress Press.
Waas, T., & Hugé, J. 2012. Developing an environmental sustainability toolkit to
integrate climate change issues in development cooperation. In W. L. Filho
(ed), Climate change and the sustainable use of water resources. Heidelberg:
Springer-Verlag.
WCED. 2005. World Commission on Environment and Development, Our Common
Future. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Note 1. Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer (Vienna) 22 March 1985,
in force 22 September 1988, 26 ILM. 1529 (1985) 1985 Vienna Convention).
Note 2. See
World Watch Institute, 2006. State of the World 2006, Special Focus: China and
India. New York: W.W. Norton and Company.