Climate Justice for Human and Nonhuman Islanders: Domestic Duties, Regional Responsibilities, and International Interventions

• Author: Carly Elizabeth Souther & Teresa Giménez-Candela
• Pages: 355-386

355

Climate Justice for Human

and Nonhuman Islanders:

Domestic Duties, Regional

Responsibilities, and

International Interventions

Carly Elizabeth Souther* and

Teresa Giménez-Candela**

Introduction .................................................................................................356

I. Animals: e Unacknowledged Climate-vulnerable Group .................360

A. A Nod to the Black Noddy ............................................................. 362

B. Dog Days Are Over ........................................................................365

II. Climate Justice for Human and Nonhuman Island Inhabitants ............373

III. Global Call to Action: Ethics and Justice in International Law .............376

A. Domestic Duties: Database and Deliverables .................................378

1. Strategy 1. Animal Appendix ....................................................378

2. Strategy 2. Ban Live Animal Imports ........................................379

* We dedicate this chapter to the memory of Danny Markel, a brilliant criminal legal

theorist and an irreplaceable member of the Florida State community. is chapter

benetted from years of conversation with the brilliant Teresa Giménez-Candela. I thank

my mentor, editor, and friend Randy Abate for his insightful edits and invaluable guidance.

Many thanks to the editors of the Environmental Law Institute for their excellent editorial

support. Exceptional research from Katheryn Goulne is gratefully acknowledged. anks

are also in order for my parents, Greg and Patti Souther, for their unwavering love and

support of my profesional and academic pursuits. Finally, I owe a debt of gratitude to my

Doberman, Bama, who patiently waits for walks while I write. May his lazy dog days

never end!

** I would like to thank our colleague, Prof. Randall Abate for his assistance at every phase

of this project. Without the keen eye and profesional standard of Carly Souther, no portion

of this text would have seen the light of day. She transformed our collaboration into an

exciting academic experience for which I am truly grateful. I would also like to thank

Katheryn Goulne for her helpful research.

Chapter 13

356 Climate Justice

B. Regional Responsibilities: Rallies and Relocation ............................ 380

1. Strategy 1. Vocalize Vulnerabilities: Championing Climate

Justice for Island Animals ..........................................................381

2. Strategy 2. Export the Endemic and Endangered ......................381

C. International Implications: Investments and Interventions ............382

1. Strategy 1. COP21: Coordination and Collaboration for

Island Animals ......................................................................... 382

2. Strategy 2. Capitalize on Canine Culture: Conscientious

Concern for Consumption, Control, Caretakers, and Costs ......384

Conclusion ...................................................................................................386

Introduction

e delegates of the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) adopted a his-

toric climate action agreement in Paris, France, i n December 2015.1 e

Paris A greement reected the consensus of climate scientists that the risks

of global wa rming are dire and imminent.2 e increased carbon emissions

of nations, cities, corporations, and individuals in the industrialized world

have placed the climate system under dangerous anthropogenic pressure. e

varied impacts of human-induced climate change disproportionately a ect

impoverished nations and deepen existing inequalities.3 Although “those

likely to suer the most from the impacts of climate change are those who

have contributed least to the problem,” the big emitters remain largely unac-

countable for, and seemingly nonplussed by, this per vasive injustice.4

e Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC’s) Fifth Assess-

ment Report identies eight key risks of human-accelerated climate change.5

e rst climate-related risk recognizes that the lives a nd livelihoods of

people in small island developing States (SIDS) are particularly vu lnerable

1. Adoption of the Paris Agreement, UNFCC Conference of the Parties, 21st Sess., U.N. Doc. FCCC/

CP/2015/10/Add.1 (Dec. 12, 2015), http://unfccc.int/les/home/application/pdf/paris_agreement.

pdf [hereinafter Paris Agreement]. COP21 is also known as the 2015 Paris Climate Conference. See

Climate Action, Find Out More About COP21, http://www.cop21paris.org/about/cop21 (last visited

Aug. 23, 2016).

2. See National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Global Climate Change, Facts—Scientic

Consensus: Earth’s Climate Is Warming, http://climate.nasa.gov/scientic-consensus/ (last visited Aug.

23, 2016).

3. See W B, W D R 2010: D   C C-

—C N (2008), http://sitere sources.world bank.org/INTW DR2010/Resourc-

es/5287678-1226014527953/5555566-1226014549177/WDR2010_CN_oct14v3.pdf.

4. Siobhán McInerney-Lankford, Climate Change and Human Rights: An Introduction to Legal Issues, 33

H. E. L. R. 431, 431 (2009).

5. Christopher B. Field et al., Summary for Policymakers, in C C 2014: I, A-

,  V 13 (IPCC 2014), http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar5/wg2/

WGIIAR5-IntegrationBrochure_FINAL.pdf.

Climate Justice for Human and Nonhuman Islanders 357

to climate change.6 e other risks—inla nd ooding, infrastructural issues,

extreme heat, severe weather-related events, insucient access to freshwater

reserves, coral ecosystem change, or the risks to inland water systems—have

only exacerbated the vulnerability of island inhabitants in the face of cli-

mate change.7 ese island nations are not culturally, politically, or socially

homogenous, nor are they necessarily similar in terms of topography or eco-

nomic development. Despite the tendency to overgeneralize about the impact

of climate change on small islands, these States possess certa in characteristics

that d istinguish them from non-island developing countries. SIDS are not

only a icted by the same diculties and inequities as these unindustria l-

ized countries (such as povert y, inequality, and conict), but “their small

size, remoteness, narrow resource and export base, and exposure to global

environmental challenges and external economic shocks, including to a large

range of impacts from climate cha nge and potentially more frequent and

intense natural disasters,” renders them particularly vulnerable to an addi-

tional, unique layer of economic, social, and environmental problems.8

is chapter considers serious implications of climate change for the 39

small isla nd Member States of the Barbados Programme of Action (BPOA)

as well as the 14 SIDS that are not members of t he United Nations,9 with

an emphasis on seven of the most vulnerable low-lying island nations (the

SIDS-Seven) located within the tropics of the Pacic Ocean10 and the Indian

Ocean.11 A substantial number of commentators have ex amined the pro-

found climate impacts on SIDS and surveyed a range of remedies available

to small island nationals.12

6. is chapter concentrates on “islands” created by water barriers that are relatively small in size. For

example, Great Britain (including the territories of England, Scotland, and Wales) is an island cre-

ated by water barriers, yet with landmass totaling more than 80,000 mi2, it can hardly be described

as “small.”

7. is chapter does not consider the various other risks except as they relate to island communities. It

is the consequences of climate change for SIDS, rather than climate-related risks in general, that are

central to this analysis.

8. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Aairs Division for Sustainable Development,

Small Island Developing States, https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/topics/sids (last visited Aug.

23, 2016).

9. See U N O   H R   L D C,

L D C,  S I  D S (UN-OHRLLS)

S I D S: S I B() S, http://unohrlls.org/custom-

content/uploads/2013/08/SIDS-Small-Islands-Bigger-Stakes.pdf (last visited Sept. 21, 2016).

10. e Cook Islands and Tonga are located in the southern Pacic Ocean. e Federated States of Mi-

cronesia and the Marshall Islands are located in the western Pacic Ocean. Kiribati and Tuvalu are

located in the central Pacic Ocean.

11. e Maldives is located in the central Indian Ocean. See Table 1.

12. See, e.g., Maxine Burkett, A Justice Paradox: On Climate Change, Small Island Developing States, and

the Quest for Eective Legal Remedy, 35 U. H. L. R. 633 (2013); Marc Limon, Human Rights

and Climate Change: Constructing a Case for Political Action, 33 H. E. L. R. 439 (2009);