Climate Change Impact On Small Island Developing States And The International Legal Remedies

Climate change is one of the most serious problems which threat human beings’life, as it has great impacts on natural resources, ocean resources, ecosystem andnational security, etc. Many reasons contribute to climate change, especially thehuman activities---the industrialized nations have relatively high carbon emissions orthat are involved in the fossil fuel industry. However, the Small Island DevelopingStates (SIDS for short) which locate in the vast ocean and rank among the list of mostundeveloped nations are the biggest victim of climate change.Although the international society has done their effort to reduce the emission ofgreenhouse gas, the threats of climate change to the SIDS still do not diminish. In theperspective of international law theory, the SIDS are able to seek for legal remedies ofclimate change. In the international law framework, the system of state responsibilitymakes it possible for the SIDS to protect their legal rights. They can file a suit in theInternational Court of Justice and proposal the related nations to take the nationalresponsibility. Besides that, relevant conventions afford helps to the SIDS. Due to thespecific conventions, they can claim that the parties who shoulder the obligationshould fulfill their duty and compensate for losses. While in practice, all these legalremedies have difficulty to realize. The SIDS should not only promote strategicmeasures to respond to climate change and seek for other remedies excluding theinternational law field, but also need the assistance and support of the internationalsociety.There are five chapters in this paper. The first chapter is to introduce thesituation of SIDS and the main impacts of climate change on the SIDS. The secondchapter will analyze the first way of the international legal remedies which the SIDScould turn to---ask the nations who violate the international obligations of climate change to shoulder the national responsibility. The third chapter will analyze thesecond remedy---seek for help in the United Nations Framework Convention onClimate Change. Through this means, the SIDS can require the convention parties tofulfill their obligations, ask for funds, and apply to multilateral consultative process orconciliation. The fourth chapter will analyze the remedies in other relevant fields:International Covenants of Human Rights, Convention on the Law of the Sea, thebiodiversity field, etc. After researching on the feasibility of the international legalremedies mentioned above, the difficulties and drawbacks of each remedy will beanalyzed. The fifth chapter will put forward suggestion and advice to the SIDS, andcall on more attention of the international society to these SIDS.