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The Exigencies That Drive Potential Causes of Action for Climate Change Damages at the International Level

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2017

William C. G. Burns
William C. G. Burns*
Affiliation:
University of Redlands
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Abstract

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Type
Climate Justice: The Prospects for Climate Change Litigation
Information
Proceedings of the ASIL Annual Meeting , Volume 98 , 2004 , pp. 223 - 227
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 2004

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References

1 John R. Justus & Susan R. Fletcher, Global Climate Change, CRS Issue Brief for Congress, Aug. 13, 2001, at 3, available at <http://www.ncseonline.org/NLE/CRSreports/Climate/clim-2.cfm?&CFID=13638750&CFTOKEN=63020586> (visited April 25, 2004).

2 Fred Pearce, World Lays Odds on Global Catastrophe, New Sci., April 8, 1995, at 4.

3 Overall, carbon dioxide accounts for 65% of the total radiative forcing resulting from anthropogenically released greenhouse gases; methane contributes an additional 19%; chlorofluorocarbons, 10%; and nitrous oxide about 6%. G. Aplin, Global Environmental Crisis 222 (2d ed. 1999).

4 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Radiative Forcing of Climate Change 8 (1994).

The earth then is radiating less energy to space than it absorbs from the sun. This temporary planetary energy imbalance results in the earth’s gradual warming .... Because of the large capacity of the oceans to absorb heart, it takes the earth about a century to approach a new balance—that is, for it to once again receive the same amount of energy from the sun it radiates to space. And of course the balance is reset at a higher temperature

James Hansen, Defusing the Global Warming Time Bomb, Sci. Am., Mar. 2004, at 71.

5 Burns, William C.G., Pacific Island Developing Country Water Resources and Climate Change, in Gleick, Peter (ed.), The World’s Water 2002-2003 121 (2003)Google Scholar.

6 Hansen, supra note 4, at 71.

7 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Third Assessment Report- Climate Change 2001 (2001), available at <http://www.grida.no/climate/ipcc_tar/>, (visited April 25, 2004).

8 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Summary for Policymakers: A Report of Working Group I, Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis 13 (2001). In its Second Assessment Report, the IPCC projected that temperatures would rise between 1.0 and 3.5 degrees celcius by 2100. IPCC, Contribution of Working Group I to the IPCC Second Assessment Report SPM.3, IPCC-XI/DOC. 3 (1995).

9 Wigley, T.M.L. & Raper, S.C.B., Interpretation of High Projections for Global-Mean Warming, 293 Sci. 451, 453-54 (2001)CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed. See also Hadley Centre, The Greenhouse Effect & Climate Change 12-16 (1999).

10 IPCC, supra note 7, at 5.

11 Thomas, Craig D. et al., Extinction Risk from Climate Change, 427, Nature 145, 146-47 (2004)CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed. See also Burns, William C.G., Climate Change and the International Whaling Commission in the 21st Century, in The Future of Cetaceans in a Changing World 339-82 (Burns, William C.G. & Gillespie, Alexander eds. 2003)Google Scholar.

12 Climate Action Network, Preventing Dangerous Climate Change 6 (2002).

13 William CG. Burns, The Possible Impacts of Climate Change on Pacific Island State Ecosystems, Occasional Paper of the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment & Security, Mar. 2000, at 1-19.

14 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2001, Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, Ch. 9, §9.7.1.1 (2001) (Number of people living in potential transmission zone of malaria may increase by 260 million to 320 million by 2080); John E. Hay, Et Al., Climate Variability and Change and Sea-Level Rise in the Pacific Islands Region, South Pacific Regional Environment 69 (2003), available at <http://www.sprep.org.was/climate/doc/oiindex.htm>, (visited April 26, 2004); Burns, William C.G., Climate Change and Human Health, The Critical Policy Agenda, 287(17) J. Am. Med. Ass’n 287, 287 (2002)Google ScholarPubMed.

15 IPCC, supra note 14, at §9.5.1.

16 Papua New Guinea & Pacific Island County Unit, The World Bank, Cities, Seas, and Storms, Vol. IV, Adapting to Climate Change, Nov. 13, 2000, at 13; UNEP Information Unit on Climate Change, Climate Change Scenarios: Why the Poor Are the Most Vulnerable, Fact Sheet No. 111 (May 1993)

17 Papua New Guinea & Pacific Island County Unit, supra note 16, at 25; Spalding, Mark, Grady, Stephen & Zöckler, Christoph, Changes in Tropical Regions, in Impacts of Climate Change on Wildlife 28 (Green, Rys E., et al., eds. 2002)Google Scholar; and Warming to Hit Asian Agriculture: Report, Jiji Press Ticker Service, May 30, 1995 (Lexis. World Library).

18 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change [UNFCC], May 9, 1992, 31 ILM 849 (1992).

19 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat, UNFCCC: Status of Ratifications, available at <http://unfccc.int/resource/conv/ratlist.pdf> (visited Apr. 26, 2004).

20 Lai Panjabi, Ranee Khooshie, Can International Law Improve the Climate? An Analysis of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Signed at the Rio Summit in 1992, 18 N.C. J. Int’l L & Comm. Reg. 491, 404 (1993)Google Scholar.

21 UNFCCC, supra note 18, at art. 4(2)(b).

22 Arts, Bas, New Arrangements in Climate Policy, 52 Change 1, 2 (2000)Google Scholar. Worldwide greenhouse gas emissions have already risen 11 percent above 1990 levels in the ten years since the UNFCCC came into force. Houlder, Vanessa, Swiss Re Changes the Climate, Financial Times, Apr. 27, 2004, at 12 Google Scholar.

23 Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Dec. 10, 1997, FCCC/ CP/1997/L.7/Add. 1, reprinted in 37 ILM 22 (1998).

24 Ibid, at art. 3(1).

25 White House office of the Press Secretary, Remarks by the President on Global Climate Change, June 11, 2001, available at <http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/06/2001061l-2.html>, (visited April 26, 2004).

26 The White House, Global Climate Change Policy Book, Feb. 2002, available at <http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/02/climatechange.html> (visited on April 26, 2004). The proposal also called, inter alia, for increasing funding for climate change research by $700 million in FY 2003. Ibid.

21 Ibid.

28 Kyoto Protocol, supra note 23, at Annex B.

29 van Vuuren, Detlef, et al., An Evaluation of the Level of Ambition and Implications of the Bush Climate Change Initiative, 2 Climate Poly 293, 295 (2002)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; A.P.G. de Moor et al., Evaluating the Bush Climate Change Initiative, Dutch Ministry of Environment, RIVM Report 278001019/2002 (2002), at 13.

30 Kyoto Protocol, supra note 23, at art. 25(1).

31 Mustafa H. Babiker, et al., The Evolution of a Climate Regime: Kyoto to Marrakech, MIT Joint Program on the Science & Policy of Global Change, Rep. No. 82 (Feb. 2002), at 2.

32 The Kyoto Protocol has been ratified by 122 UNFCCC parties to date, of which 32 are Annex I states. UNFCCC Secretariat, Kyoto Protocol Thermometer, available at <http://unfccc.int/resource/kpthermo.html> (visited on April 27, 2004).

33 Ibid.

34 Some Russian officials, including President Putin’s economic advisor, Andrei Illarionov, have expressed serious misgivings about the protocol, contending that it would imperil the nation’s economic growth. Alex Kirby, Russia Pulls Away from Kyoto, BBC News, Dec. 2, 2003, available at <http://news.bbc.co.Uk/l/hi/sci/tech/3256604.stm>, (visited April 27, 2004). More recently, however, some analysts have expressed hope that Russia’s ratification may be imminent if European parties to the Protocol agree to purchase some of its emission quotas, as is permitted under the protocol. Kyoto Supporters Take Upper Hand in Russian Administration-Newspaper, BBC Monitoring Int’I. Rep., April 25, 2004 (LEXIS—Newsfile).

35 bid. It should be noted, however, that the European Union, which is responsible for approximately 30% of the emissions of Annex I parties, has decided to implement an emissions trading program, beginning in 2005, to facilitate the EU’s implementation of the Kyoto Protocol. European Union, Climate Change: EP Vote Paves the Way for Global Fight against Climate Change, April 20, 2004, available at <http://europa.eu.int/rapid/start/cgi/guesten.ksh?p_action.gettxt=gt&doc=ff/04/505|0|AGED&lg=EN&display=> (visited Apr. 27, 2004).

36 Tom Athanasiou & Paul Baer, Bonn and Genoa: A Tale of Two Cities and Two Movements, Foreign Pol’y in Focus, Discussion Paper, Aug. 2001, at 3 (Concessions made in negotiations to flesh out Kyoto Protocol could “render the protocol’s nominal mandate of a 5.2% overall reduction in rich-world emissions (from their 1990 baseline) into a 0.3% increase”); Schreurs, Miranda A., Competing Agendas and the Climate Change Negotiations: The United States, the European Union, and Japan, 31 Envtl. L. Rep. 11218, 11218 (2001)Google Scholar.

37 Parry, Martin et al., Buenos Aires and Kyoto Targets Do Little to Reduce Climate Change Impacts, 8(4) Global Envtl. Change 285, 285 (1998)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Babiker, Mustafa H., The Evolution of a Climate Regime: Kvoto to Marrakech and Beyond, 5 Envtl. Sci. & Pol’y 195, 202 (2002)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

38 UK Meteorological office, The Greenhouse Effect and Climate Change, briefing from the Hadley Centre, Oct., 1999, at 5.

39 Friends of the Earth, Inc., Greenpeace, Inc., and the City of Boulder v. Peter Watson et al., Civ. No.fN.D. Cal. 2002), available at <http://climatelawsuit.org/2002-08-26_Complaint.pdf> (visited Apr. 27, 2004).

40 Commonwealth of Massachusetts, et al, Petitioners v. Environmental Protection Agency, Respondent, and Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, et al, Intervenors, U.S. Court of Appeals, DC Circuit, Case No. 03-1361 (consolidated with 03-1362, 03-1363, 03-1364, 03-1365, 03-1366, 03-1367 and 03-1368), available at <http://www.ago.state.ma.us/press_rel/202petition2.asp?searchStr=l> (visited Apr. 27, 2004). See generally, Mukerjee, Madhusree, Greenhouse Suits, Sci. Am., Feb. 2003, at 14–15 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Additionally, “[e]nvironmentalists and state attorneys general are honing potential legal strategies to file tort suits against companies over their alleged contributions to global warming.” Clean Air Report, InsideEPA.com, Feb. 26, 2004, Vol. 15, No. 5, at 4.

41 See Strauss, Andrew, The Legal Option: Suing the United States in International Forums for Global Warming Emissions, 33 Envtl. L. Rev. 10185, 10185-87 (2003)Google Scholar.

42 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, opened for signature Dec. 10, 1982, 1833 UNTS 397 [hereinafter LOSC]. Art. 194(20) of LOSC provides:

States shall take all measures necessary to ensure that activities under their jurisdiction or control are so conducted as not to cause damage by pollution to other States and their environment, and that pollution arising from incidents or activities under their jurisdiction or control does not spread beyond the areas where they exercise sovereign rights in accordance with this Convention.

43 The Agreement for the Implementation of the Provisions of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea of 10 December 1982 Relating to the Conservation and Management of Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks, Aug. 4, 1995, UN Doc. A/CONF. 164/37.

44 Strauss, supra note 41, at 10188.

45 Allster Doyle, Inuit Hunters: Arctic Climate Change is Human Rights Abuse, Common Dreams News Center, Dec. 11, 2003, available at <http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/121l-07.htm> (visited April 27, 2004).