The consequences of climate change are not simply environmental; they are also social, cultural and economical. As previously mentioned, the rise in sea level is the most significant climate change in relation to the Small Island States with the possibility of increased frequency of freak weather events, together with health effects due to increased vector borne diseases (Owen and Hanley, 2004, p243). Extreme weather events are already affecting Islands in the Pacific, with broader changes in climatic conditions affecting the health, food and water supply, infrastructure, economy and the general well being of people living in these countries (Myers, 1997, p175).
The Red Cross estimates that 22 million people have fled conflict and thus been recognised as refugees, however, 25 million people have fled natural disasters for which there is no formal recognition (Meyers, 1997, p167). There is an obvious need for the acknowledgment of internally and / or externally displaced people due to environmental issues, however, the United Nations has only just recently recognised the problem of climate change.
In 1988 the World Meterological Organisation (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) after recognising the possibility of a problem with global climate change (Davissen and Long, 2003, p3). By 1990 the IPCC had produced its ‘First Assessment Report’ on the state of climate change recognising that human activity was leading to increased atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases and rising temperatures. This initial report led to the adoption of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992 (Owen and Hanley, 2004, p36).
In 2001 the IPCC completed the ‘Third Assessment Report’ which found that there was stronger and more recent evidence to suggest that human activity was responsible for most of the global warming in the past 50 years. The report acknowledged that there had been an increase in the average global surface temperature by 0.6oC since the 20th Century, together with an increase in the global average sea level. It also made numerous predictions on global changes and their impacts, all of which indicate that greenhouse gas emissions need to be lowered immediately. As emissions cannot be reduced to zero in an instant however, the current emissions have seemingly committed the world to a future of sea level rises and increased global warming (Davissen and Long, 2003, p4).
All countries contribute to the problem of climate change, albeit to vastly different extents. Industrialised countries account for just over sixty six (66) per cent of the greenhouse gas emissions accumulated in the atmosphere (IPCC, 1996, p94), while Small Island States in the Pacific account for only zero point zero six (0.06) per cent (Davissen and Long, 2003, p.5). This shows an inherent unfairness whereby the countries who have contributed the least to the problem will be the most vulnerable to its impacts when the consequences of climate change are realised.
In 1990 the Alliance of Small Island States was established with the aim of 42 Small Island States banding together to have a stronger input in world affairs, and also to try to have environmental issues, together with the notion of ‘environmental refugees’ addressed by the United Nations (Leatherman, 1994, p53). Although progress has been made in terms of recognition of environmental change with the findings made in the ‘Third Assessment Report’, the attempts to have ‘environmental refugees’ recognised has been futile.
The formulation of policies within the United Nations is a seemingly slow process and consensus amongst States is difficult. The United States recently withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol process, but not from the Convention on Climate Change (Owen and Hanley, 2004, p38) which proves difficulties of consensus within the United Nations. There seems to be an opinion amongst certain members of the United Nations that climate change is a slow and gradual process and owing to the fact that measures are currently being put in place to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, thereby seemingly slowing the effects of climate change, eliminates the potential of ‘environmental refugees’. However, although the IPCC has raised the scientific dimension of climate change, what may constitute an acceptable degree of climate change remains an ultimately political and unanswered, and perhaps unanswerable question in the regime (Owen and Hanley, 2004, p37).
This essay discussed the role of the United Nations in assisting Small Island States adapt to climate change and the ‘environmental refugee’ debate. There has been an acknowledgment on a global scale in the past twenty years of climate change, with recognition being made of the human impact on this. However, ‘environmental refugees’ seem to be absent in climate change debates and perhaps until such time as numerous catastrophic environmental disasters occur, the lack of acknowledgement by the United Nations of ‘environmental refugees’ will remain.
REFERENCES:
Davissen, J., Long, S., (2003), Islands are lost even before sea-level rises: the impacts
of climate change on small island states, Friends of the Earth, Australia: 1-9
Ede, P.M., (2003), That sinking feeling, Earth Island Journal, Winter, Vol 17, No. 4,
p:39-40
Gillespie, A., Burns, W.C.G., (Eds) (2000), Climate Change in the South Pacific: Impacts
and Responses in Australia, New Zealand and Small Island States, Kluwer Academic Publishers, The Netherlands
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (1996), Climate Change 1995: Economic
and Social Dimensions of Climate Change, Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge
Johnston, R.J., Gregory, D., Pratt, G., Watts, M., (Eds) (2000), The Dictionary of
Human Geography Fourth Edition, Blackwell Publishing, Carlton, Victoria
Leatherman, S.P., (1994), Rising Sea Level and Small Island States, Ecodecision,
January, p:53-54
Myers, N. (1997), Environmental Refugees, Population and Environment: A Journal of
Interdisciplinary Studies, Vol 19, No. 2, p:167-182
Owen, A.D., Hanley, N., (Eds) (2004), The Economics of Climate Change, Routledge,
New York
