Climate Change and the Specter of Statelessness
Publisher: Georgetown Environmental Law Review
Author(s): Mark Nevitt
Date: 2023
Topics: Climate Change, Governance, Programming
What happens when climate change extinguishes entire nations? Neither international nor environmental law has yet provided a satisfactory answer to this weighty question. Climate change-induced flooding, storm surge, and sea level rise threaten the territorial integrity and habitability of several small island developing states in the Pacific. This raises the specter of statelessness—we know that climate catastrophe is coming, but we have failed to take the necessary steps to safeguard several developing nations. This Essay argues that innovative legal and policy solutions are needed today to prevent nation extinction tomorrow. I focus on two international governance solutions: the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change’s loss and damage mechanism, and the U.N. Security Council’s capacity to address environmental threats to international peace and security.