Gray, Christine --- "Climate Change and the Law on the Use of Force" [2012] ELECD 744; 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 9

Section Title: Climate Change and the Law on the Use of Force

Author(s): Gray, Christine

Number of pages: 22

Extract:

9. Climate change and the law on the
use of force
Christine Gray

INTRODUCTION
Many have claimed that there is an obvious link between climate change
and the international legal regime on the use of force: they assert or assume
that the consequences of climate change will lead to conflict or increase the
likelihood of conflict, both internal and international.1 It may be that such
claims are partly motivated by a desire to encourage states to take action on
climate change; the threat of conflict may persuade states to take climate
change more seriously. It is also not surprising that some within NATO, still
looking for a role after the end of the Cold War, should argue that climate
change will affect security.2 But it is far from established that such a link
between climate change and conflict exists.3 In the 2007 Security Council
debate on climate change Brazil advocated extreme caution in establishing
links between conflicts and the use of natural resources or the evolution of
climate on our planet; the determination whether any particular environ-
mental phenomenon represented a threat to international peace and security
remained a very complex task.4 Not only should conflicts not be traced back
to a single cause, but the matter was also invariably loaded with many
political connotations which might impair an objective analysis. A more

1
See works cited by R. Nordas and N. Gleditsch, `Climate change and conflict'
(2007) 26 Political Geography 627; H. Buhaug, N. Gleditsch ...