scholarly journals At Home or Abroad: Tuvaluans Shaping a Tuvaluan Future

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Kathryn Louise Paton
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
International Law ◽  
International Development ◽  
Forced Migration ◽  
Complex Issue ◽  
Barriers To Participation ◽  
Country People ◽  
At Home

<p>If development is to be sustainable, it is vital to plan and act with all possible futures in mind and for communities to be engaged and empowered so that development meets local needs. Throughout the international development community, there have been regular calls for people to act locally, but think globally. Yet, as challenges become more complex, it is no longer enough to simply think globally. Where possible futures involve losing one's land and country, people need to be able to participate in making a better future for themselves, their families and their communities beyond their own borders. Tuvalu is a country that faces multiple possible futures that may have severe impacts on its people, including the possibility of forced migration. As a country with many development needs, Tuvalu has created Te Kakeega II: National Strategies for Sustainable Development - 2005-2015, which acknowledges the need for participation and cross-sectoral collaboration. This thesis examines the mechanisms that exist to engage Tuvaluans in their development. It reviews whether Tuvaluans actually participate in these processes and whether there are any barriers to participation. It also investigates to what extent the mechanisms for participation are helping Tuvalu confront the contemporary and complex issue of climate change. People who are forced to migrate because of changes in their environment have no rights under international law and thus risk becoming disempowered. If Tuvaluans are forced to migrate because of climate change, they risk losing any gains they have made at home. Unlike many forced migration situations, Tuvaluans have time to participate in the preparations for such a future. To what extent are they enabled and empowered to do this? How, and who, do they think should prepare for this possible future?</p>

scholarly journals At Home or Abroad: Tuvaluans Shaping a Tuvaluan Future

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Kathryn Louise Paton
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
International Law ◽  
International Development ◽  
Forced Migration ◽  
Complex Issue ◽  
Barriers To Participation ◽  
Country People ◽  
At Home

<p>If development is to be sustainable, it is vital to plan and act with all possible futures in mind and for communities to be engaged and empowered so that development meets local needs. Throughout the international development community, there have been regular calls for people to act locally, but think globally. Yet, as challenges become more complex, it is no longer enough to simply think globally. Where possible futures involve losing one's land and country, people need to be able to participate in making a better future for themselves, their families and their communities beyond their own borders. Tuvalu is a country that faces multiple possible futures that may have severe impacts on its people, including the possibility of forced migration. As a country with many development needs, Tuvalu has created Te Kakeega II: National Strategies for Sustainable Development - 2005-2015, which acknowledges the need for participation and cross-sectoral collaboration. This thesis examines the mechanisms that exist to engage Tuvaluans in their development. It reviews whether Tuvaluans actually participate in these processes and whether there are any barriers to participation. It also investigates to what extent the mechanisms for participation are helping Tuvalu confront the contemporary and complex issue of climate change. People who are forced to migrate because of changes in their environment have no rights under international law and thus risk becoming disempowered. If Tuvaluans are forced to migrate because of climate change, they risk losing any gains they have made at home. Unlike many forced migration situations, Tuvaluans have time to participate in the preparations for such a future. To what extent are they enabled and empowered to do this? How, and who, do they think should prepare for this possible future?</p>

Global Health and International Development

2018 ◽  
pp. 216-235
Author(s):  
Andrew Harmer ◽  
Jonathan Kennedy
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Global Health ◽  
Economic System ◽  
International Development ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Global Population

This chapter explores the relationship between international development and global health. Contrary to the view that development implies ‘good change’, this chapter argues that the discourse of development masks the destructive and exploitative practices of wealthy countries at the expense of poorer ones. These practices, and the unregulated capitalist economic system that they are part of, have created massive inequalities between and within countries, and potentially catastrophic climate change. Both of these outcomes are detrimental to global health and the millennium development goals and sustainable development goals do not challenge these dynamics. While the Sustainable Development Goals acknowledge that inequality and climate change are serious threats to the future of humanity, they fail to address the economic system that created them. Notwithstanding, it is possible that the enormity and proximity of the threat posed by inequality and global warming will energise a counter movement to create what Kate Raworth terms ‘an ecologically safe and socially just space’ for the global population while there is still time.

Leveraging Bogotá: Sustainable development, global philanthropy and the rise of urban solutionism

Urban Studies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 57 (11) ◽  
pp. 2263-2281 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergio Montero
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
International Development ◽  
Urban Policy ◽  
Multiple Scales ◽  
Structural Factors ◽  
Global Development ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Development Agenda ◽  
Policy Solutions

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is marked by the consolidation of sustainability as a key guiding principle and an emphasis on cities as a potential solution to global development problems. However, in the absence of an agreement on how to implement sustainable development in cities, a set of urban policy solutions and ‘best practices’ became the vehicles through which the sustainable development agenda is spreading worldwide. This article shows that the rapid circulation of Bogotá as a model of sustainable transport since the 2000s reflects an increasing focus of the international development apparatus on urban policy solutions as an arena to achieve global development impacts, what I call the ‘leveraging cities’ logic in this article. This logic emerges at a particular historical conjuncture characterised by: (1) the rising power of global philanthropy to set development agendas; (2) the generalisation of solutionism as a strategy of action among development and philanthropic organisations; and (3) the increasing attention on cities as solutions for global development problems, particularly around sustainability and climate change. By connecting urban policy mobilities debates with development studies this article seeks to unpack the emergence, and the limits, of ‘leveraging cities’ as a proliferating global development practice. These urban policy solutions are far from being a clear framework of action. Rather, their circulation becomes a ‘quick fix’ to frame the problem of sustainable development given the unwillingness of development and philanthropic organisations to intervene in the structural factors and multiple scales that produce environmental degradation and climate change.

scholarly journals Coherence, Alignment and Integration: Understanding the Legal Relationship Between Sustainable Development, Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction

2021 ◽  
pp. 45-64
Author(s):  
Dug Cubie ◽  
Tommaso Natoli
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
International Law ◽  
Risk Reduction ◽  
Climate Change Adaptation ◽  
Disaster Risk Reduction ◽  
Human Impacts ◽  
Disaster Risk ◽  
International Norms ◽  
The Sustainable Development

AbstractInternational law can play an important role in promoting national, regional and international actions to tackle the human impacts of climate change and disasters. Of note, 2015 saw the adoption of three interconnected normative frameworks: the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030, the Paris Agreement under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). One may therefore be tempted to view this body of international norms, rules and standards as a comprehensive and unified system. Yet the increasing complexity and specialisation of different international legal regimes has led to concerns regarding a confusing fragmentation of international law. This chapter will therefore examine the relationship between the three topics of sustainable development, climate change adaptation (CCA) and disaster risk reduction (DRR) from a legal perspective. The chapter will commence with a discussion of the legal status of different international instruments, before providing a textual analysis of the language used by states, the UN, NGOs and other actors in the relevant documents. We then propose an ‘hourglass’ model of the legal relationships between these three different international frameworks based on: systemic coherence at the international level; vertical alignment between the international, regional and national levels; and horizontal integration of international norms at the domestic level. To support this proposal, examples will be provided from the Pacific Island Countries (PICs), drawing on research undertaken through the IRC-MSCA CAROLINE project ‘Leave No One Behind: Developing Climate-Smart/Disaster Risk Management Laws that Protect People in Vulnerable Situations for a Comprehensive Implementation of the UN Agenda 2030.’

scholarly journals Water Governance in the Aftermath of Rio+20

2014 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 236-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Sindico
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
International Law ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
Global Institutions ◽  
Policy Goals ◽  
Setting Process ◽  
Conceptual Background ◽  
Global Water

Abstract This article focuses on water governance in the aftermath of the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (uncsd or Rio+20). Water governance is defined here as a process in which law has a transformational role by allowing policy goals to become tangible and enforceable rights and obligations. Against this conceptual background global water governance appears to be still fragmented and incoherent. More coordination efforts and further harmonisation is needed, but more importantly global institutions are required to allow international law to operate effectively. It is within this context that the uncsd can be seen as an international agenda setting process and three key water related topics appear to be on such agenda: water and sanitation; water and ecosystem services and water and climate change. The article concludes with a call in favour of considering water not just as a public good, but mainly as a driver for sustainable development.

scholarly journals The Shifting Status of Cities in International Law? A Review, Several Questions and a Straight Answer

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-36
Author(s):  
Giuseppe Nesi
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Local Authorities ◽  
Multilateral Negotiations ◽  
The Status ◽  
Global Concern ◽  
Transnational City

Witnessing the sometimes confusing and often nebulous debate on the position of cities in international law, one could wonder what cities are and what they do in contemporary international law. One could also wonder whether allowing cities to actively participate in the formation and implementation of international norms, and to contribute to international multilateral negotiations on issues of global concern such as sustainable development, climate change or human rights, does really imply a change in their status in international law. In this contribution, the reasons why cities are not subjects of international law, or better, why cities and local authorities still matter in international law because they are part of a State, are systematically assessed. Specific attention is paid to the status and role of transnational city networks. Before concluding, this article makes some final comments on the prospects for cities and transnational city networks in international law.

scholarly journals Recognition of the Rights of the Victims of Climate Change under Public International Law: A Study

2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 41-58
Author(s):  
Piyali Sengupta
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Environmental Disaster ◽  
Complex Issue ◽  
Public International Law ◽  
Environmental Refugees ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Climate Refugees

In recent years, climate change is emerging as a major environmental disaster. The impact of such disasters has been the rise in global temperature and flooding of coastal zone communities, frequent droughts and disruptions in rainfall pattern. This has resulted in the increase in the number of environmental refugees. Climate change disasters constitute a major reason for displacement of population than war and persecution. Climate induced migration is a highly complex issue. The status of climate refugees is not recognized in the international framework. The non recognition of these victims in international and national legislations has not only deprived them of their basic human rights but has also raised crucial questions relating to their existence and identity. This paper tries to bring out the lacunae in the present policy and legal framework relating to environmental refugees with reference to the non-refoulement principle. Further, the paper emphasizes on the need to include climate refugees under the term „refugee‟ as laid down in the United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, 1951and provides suggestions for improving the condition and protection of this hitherto neglected population.

scholarly journals Implementing the SDG-13 through the Adoption of Hybrid Law: Addressing Climate-Induced Displacement

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-100
Author(s):  
Stellina Jolly ◽  
Abhishek Trivedi
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
International Law ◽  
Paradigm Shift ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Environmental Concerns ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Development Goals

The sustainable development goals (sdgs) with their integrated linkage of development and environmental concerns have been hailed as a paradigm shift in the attainment of sustainability. The article attempts to understand the normative framework that underwrites international law and sdg-13 vis-a-vis climate change with a special focus on climate-induced displacement. It explores the existing provisions, limitations, and gaps under international law with regard to displacement associated with climate change. More specifically, the analysis assesses the potential of hybrid law in promoting the goals of sdg-13. The hybrid law approach proposed in this article involves the amalgamation of substantive norms from different branches of international law, integration of norms of differing legal status and engagement of state and non-state actors. The analysis explores the concept of hybrid law, surveys the Nansen Protection Agenda and the Global Compact on Migration and analyses their suitability in exploring solutions to climate displacement. The article evaluates how the adoption of the sdgs provides a foundation for the development of a hybrid law in examining solutions to climate displacement under sdg-13.

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