Hulme, Karen --- "Climate Change and International Humanitarian Law" [2012] ELECD 743; in Rayfuse, Rosemary; Scott, V. Shirley (eds), "International Law in the Era of Climate Change" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012)

Book Title: International Law in the Era of Climate Change

Editor(s): Rayfuse, Rosemary; Scott, V. Shirley

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781849800303

Section: Chapter 8

Section Title: Climate Change and International Humanitarian Law

Author(s): Hulme, Karen

Number of pages: 29

Extract:

8. Climate change and international
humanitarian law
Karen Hulme

INTRODUCTION
The world is a very different place to that which existed in the 1940s, in the
wake of the Second World War and the 1949 Geneva Conventions, and even
the 1970s, when the bulk of humanitarian law was drafted. Both the threat
of future impacts of climate change and, for many, the reality of such
impacts have changed the political, legal and security landscape as well as
the environmental one. As food, water and energy sources become increas-
ingly scarce some predict a shift in the causes of conflict, possibly, in turn,
affecting the geographic incidence of conflict and the scale or typology of
conflict, notably whether conflicts induced by climate change will more
likely be internal conflicts (often referred to as civil war) or international
conflicts (conflict between the armed forces of two or more states).
The most likely scenario for future armed conflicts is a greater degree of
unpredictability than exists at present. Unpredictability will influence mili-
tary planning and operations and is likely to impact the civilians caught in
the arena of battle by exacerbating existing vulnerabilities. In addition,
peacetime adaptation policies are changing the environmental and infra-
structural landscape including an increase in reforestation and greater
emphasis on the construction of dams, early warning systems and flood
defences. Likewise a greater shift to nuclear power as well as clean
technologies is changing the energy landscape. While the law has moved on
since dam-busting tactics employed ...