Rosemary Lyster

Climate justice, adaptation and the Paris Agreement: a recipe for disasters?

ABSTRACT A Capability Approach is adopted to critically analyse, in the interests of Climate Justice, whether the Paris Agreement is likely to adequately protect human and non-human Capabilities from the worst impacts of climate disasters. The mitigation, adaptation, and loss and damage provisions of the Paris Agreement are not convincing. Adaptation offers only a modest response to climate change, compared with mitigation, and current financial commitments to fund adaptation in developing countries are far too low. Consequently, the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change have a long way to go in their negotiations before they have any hope of meeting their agreed temperature goals, and protecting human and non-human Capabilities from climate disasters.

A Fossil Fuel-Funded Climate Disaster Response Fund under the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage Associated with Climate Change Impacts

Three sets of social institutions deal with catastrophic risk: government regulation through rule making, the market, and civil liability. Climate disasters expose the limitations of all of these social institutions and often result in extensive uncompensated losses, particularly in developing countries. The author proposes the establishment of a fossil fuel-funded Climate Disaster Response Fund to compensate victims for the ‘residual’ risk of climate disasters in developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. This Fund, established under the UNFCCC’s Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage Associated with Climate Change Impacts, would comprise levies placed on the world’s top 200 fossil fuel companies. This proposal is modelled on various domestic and international funds which have been established to overcome the difficulties posed by tort law and which require companies to pay for the hazardous consequences of their activities and products. Precedents include funds to compensate for the damage caused by toxic chemicals, oil pollution spills, asbestos and nuclear accidents.

Law, tropical forests and carbon: the case of REDD+.

Introduction Part I. Framing the Problem: Perspectives from Law, Science and Governance: 1. International legal frameworks for REDD+: ensuring legitimacy Rosemary Lyster 2. Tropical forests: carbon, climate and biodiversity Yadvinder Malhi and Toby R. Marthews 3. Measuring tropical forest carbon stocks Valerio Avitabile 4. The quiet woods: REDD+ in societies with intact rainforests Thomas K. Rudel 5. REDD+ and multi-level governance: governing for what and for whom? Constance L. McDermott Part II. Operationalising REDD+: 6. The financial aspects of REDD+: assessing costs, mobilizing and disbursing funds Charlotte Streck 7. Designing, implementing and enforcing REDD+ schemes Catherine MacKenzie 8. The science of measuring, reporting and verification (MRV) Ben DeVries and Martin Herold Part III. Securing the Rights of Forest Dwellers: 9. Land and resource tenure: the rights of indigenous peoples and forest dwellers Robert Fisher and Rosemary Lyster 10. Payments for ecosystem services and environmental governance in Indonesia Jeff Neilson and Beria Leimona 11. REDD+ and development Leo Peskett 12. Brazil and Indonesia: REaDD+y or not? Simon Butt, Beatriz Garcia, Jemma Parsons and Tim Stephens.

Development and Energy

INTRODUCTION While energy is a physical entity well understood and quantitatively defined, the concept of development is less well defined and there are different perceptions about its meaning. The World Bank measures development by the gross national product (GNP) and nations are classified in categories according to their GNP per capita. This monetization of the concept of development is not well understood, nor accepted by many, particularly in developing countries, where income per capita varies dramatically between the poor and the rich. This is not the case in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries where there is a large middle class and variations in income are not very large. What the poor in the developing countries aspire to – and they represent seventy percent of the worlds population – is a “better life,” meaning jobs, food, health services, housing (rural or urban), education, transportation, running water, sewage communication services, security of supply, and good environment. These things are usually measured in industrialized countries by monetary transactions, but not necessarily so in many others. Climate, abundant and easily available natural resources can lead to a better life without great monetary expenses. In some countries cultural values are such that some items are less desirable than in others. In others the political system privileges some solutions over others that cost much less. This is why to compare stages of development only by GDP per capita can be quite misleading.

Protecting the Human Rights of Climate Displaced Persons: The Promise and Limits of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

This Chapter confronts the definitional controversy that has endured for three decades over precisely how to define people who are displaced by climate change. Are they to be ‘refugees’, ‘migrants’ or ‘displaced persons’ and do these people need to be displaced internally or across borders, and should their displacement be voluntary or forced? The answer is not simply semantic, for depending on the definition adopted, authors propose the application of different international law instruments in order to protect the human rights of those in question. There is even some suggestion that definitions have been adopted in order to pursue explicitly political agendas. The author of the present Chapter, relying on a thorough literature review and on recently emerging empirical evidence, prefers the term ‘climate displaced persons’, which can apply to those displaced internally and across borders whether voluntarily or by force, including by the force of disasters. This choice reflects the best current evidence, which suggests that people are generally displaced internally by climate extremes and disasters and that, even if they have been displaced across borders, they will want to return ‘home’ once the danger has passed. Accordingly, the terms ‘refugees’ or ‘migrants’ are less accurate as reflections of the situation of climate displaced persons and the patterns of their movement. The author proposes that climate displaced persons should be formally recognized and protected under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), as is already beginning to occur. The author argues, however, that while the existing institutions of the UNFCCC can be invoked to satisfy most of the concerns raised, there needs to be continuing convergence between various international law instruments and institutions in order to move beyond the ‘path dependency’ or ‘path exclusivity’ that has existed to date. Finally, the author is cognizant of the fact that even the finest international legal instruments can fail to achieve their goals and that in the case of climate displaced persons there is a great risk of failure unless the international community ensures that sufficient funds are made available for adaptation and for the Warsaw Loss and Damage Mechanism.

Introduction to the Research Handbook on Climate Disaster Law

The IPCC’s 2013 Working Group I Fifth Assessment Report,4 and the 2012 Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation (SREX)5 evaluate how hazards, like natural climate variability and anthropogenic climate change, influence the climate extremes that contribute to disasters when they intersect with the exposure and vulnerability of human society and natural ecosystems to these extremes. Although the IPCC states that attribution of changes in individual climate events to anthropogenic forcing is complicated,6 there is sufficient evidence to suggest that climate extremes such as heat waves, record high temperatures and, in many regions, heavy precipitation have changed due to climate change in the past half century. Climate disasters can also result from a series of non-extreme events which occur in combination with social vulnerabilities and exposure to risks.7 The IPCC is careful to explain that there is not a “one-to-one” relationship between extreme weather events and disasters. Rather, extreme events will lead to disaster “if:

Protecting the Power Grid from Climate Disasters

The threats of extreme weather and slow onset events to electricity infrastructure have been well documented. Like so many climate-change threats, the problem of enhancing resilience in this infrastructure is less a lack of smart technology and more a lack of smart policy. But also the relationship between generators, transmission and distribution networks, and users, which has been pretty straightforward since the days of Westinghouse and Edison, is rapidly changing. It now seems that the way to make the power grid more resilient in cases of extreme events — particularly the kinds aggravated by climate change — is to pay more attention to its durability and flexibility. Localized technologies like rooftop-solar generation now allow users to also act as generators in distributed energy systems. Digital systems embedded in transmission networks can now control how much power commercial users request at certain times or how much power generators will produce, giving the network some characteristics of the user and the generator. We divide that work into three categories: hardening the grid, smartening the grid, and greening the grid, and point to the law and policy innovations which are needed.

Climate Change Adaptation and Electricity Infrastructure

The threats of climate change to electricity infrastructure have been well documented and may be considered in terms of climatic variables, impacts and implications. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 2012 report entitled Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation provides the most recent assessment of climate change impacts on electricity infrastructure as well as discussing the economic costs of adaptation measures and global and regional climate disasters, implications for development, recovery and reconstruction, and technologies for extreme events. This chapter sets out the scientific case for legal and technology adaptation responses in the electricity infrastructure sector in the face climate extremes and disasters. It proposes the adoption of the Smart Grid as one of the technological adaptation measures and relies on the experience of the Queensland flood disasters in Australia in 2010 to provide some generic examples of how governments and utilities might respond to protect electricity infrastructure.

Law, Tropical Forests and Carbon: Framing the problem: perspectives from law, science and governance

Introduction Part I. Framing the Problem: Perspectives from Law, Science and Governance: 1. International legal frameworks for REDD+: ensuring legitimacy Rosemary Lyster 2. Tropical forests: carbon, climate and biodiversity Yadvinder Malhi and Toby R. Marthews 3. Measuring tropical forest carbon stocks Valerio Avitabile 4. The quiet woods: REDD+ in societies with intact rainforests Thomas K. Rudel 5. REDD+ and multi-level governance: governing for what and for whom? Constance L. McDermott Part II. Operationalising REDD+: 6. The financial aspects of REDD+: assessing costs, mobilizing and disbursing funds Charlotte Streck 7. Designing, implementing and enforcing REDD+ schemes Catherine MacKenzie 8. The science of measuring, reporting and verification (MRV) Ben DeVries and Martin Herold Part III. Securing the Rights of Forest Dwellers: 9. Land and resource tenure: the rights of indigenous peoples and forest dwellers Robert Fisher and Rosemary Lyster 10. Payments for ecosystem services and environmental governance in Indonesia Jeff Neilson and Beria Leimona 11. REDD+ and development Leo Peskett 12. Brazil and Indonesia: REaDD+y or not? Simon Butt, Beatriz Garcia, Jemma Parsons and Tim Stephens.

Law, Tropical Forests and Carbon: Frontmatter

Introduction Part I. Framing the Problem: Perspectives from Law, Science and Governance: 1. International legal frameworks for REDD+: ensuring legitimacy Rosemary Lyster 2. Tropical forests: carbon, climate and biodiversity Yadvinder Malhi and Toby R. Marthews 3. Measuring tropical forest carbon stocks Valerio Avitabile 4. The quiet woods: REDD+ in societies with intact rainforests Thomas K. Rudel 5. REDD+ and multi-level governance: governing for what and for whom? Constance L. McDermott Part II. Operationalising REDD+: 6. The financial aspects of REDD+: assessing costs, mobilizing and disbursing funds Charlotte Streck 7. Designing, implementing and enforcing REDD+ schemes Catherine MacKenzie 8. The science of measuring, reporting and verification (MRV) Ben DeVries and Martin Herold Part III. Securing the Rights of Forest Dwellers: 9. Land and resource tenure: the rights of indigenous peoples and forest dwellers Robert Fisher and Rosemary Lyster 10. Payments for ecosystem services and environmental governance in Indonesia Jeff Neilson and Beria Leimona 11. REDD+ and development Leo Peskett 12. Brazil and Indonesia: REaDD+y or not? Simon Butt, Beatriz Garcia, Jemma Parsons and Tim Stephens.