Climate Change Litigation

Climate change is an especially urgent threat for Small Island Developing States (SIDS). Even though they emit a negligible proportion of the world’s annual CO2 output, these states are enduring the brunt of the damage, and will be, long into the future. The unique situations of SIDS perfectly illustrate the new legal environment climate change is creating.

For SIDS, the climate change threat has several dimensions.

The first is rooted in nature itself. SIDS are uniquely vulnerable to the destruction that follows from climate change – sea-level rise and natural disasters, for example. Sea-level rise degrades coastal areas, as do storm surges and erosion. According to scientific projections, climate change will reduce water resources on SIDS, leaving their inhabitants with insufficient water supply.1

In SIDS, damage to coastal areas affects political economy in its entirety. Most airports on SIDS are near the coast, and main roads often run along the coast. Damage to airports and roads disrupts tourism, trade and travel, striking at the heart of island state economies. Another economic cost is felt in the agricultural sector, where losses could result in a sizable reduction of GDP.2

Public health is another area of concern. Diseases such as malaria, dengue, filariasis and schistosomiasis are related to climate and therefore to climate change. Rising temperatures, coupled with a diminishing water supply, increase the likelihood of diarrhoeal and other infectious diseases. These health problems have grave economic consequences.3

Those countries suffering from climate change are not necessarily the countries that are causing climate change – to put it mildly. This asymmetry is especially acute in the case of SIDS, which lack the political and legal resources of the larger polluting nations. They may need legal protection proportional to the suffering being imposed upon them.

A separate set of legal questions stems from states that may disappear altogether. These include the islands of Tuvalu, Nauru, Kiribati, Maldives and the Bahamas. Should these territories sink into the sea, or otherwise be destroyed, their residents might become refugees, not because they are stateless but because they are from territory-less states. This is a legal dilemma best avoided, and to avoid it will require creative legal work before the foreseeable disasters arrive.

The Human Rights Connection

Climate change, in SIDS, cannot be seen as a small-scale problem, to which there are only short-term solutions. The question of climate change is best broadened by linking it to human rights.

Connecting climate change to human rights clarifies the legal connection between cause and effect. Human rights are a signpost for measuring the extraterritorial harms inflicted on SIDS; and, in the relationship between perpetrators and victims, an emphasis on human rights helps outline the proper distribution of rights and duties.

The increasing convergence of pressing environmental law questions (such as the definition of pollution), human rights law, and climate change threats will also aid in the construction of reliable enforcement mechanisms. International bodies such as the European Court of Justice and the Inter-American Commission are well-positioned to advance legal theories that could help to protect SIDS.

In the last sixty years, great advances in human rights have been made and new challenges have emerged. For practitioners of human rights, it is time to look closely at the environment; and for those working with climate change it is time to think about human rights. When it comes to the devastation caused by rising global temperatures, Small Island Developing States stand first in line. The human rights of their residents deserve the fullest possible legal protection.

The map on the homepage provides information about these countries and the problems they face. As it is a work-in-progress, we invite you to contact us with suggestions for additional content.