Description
The potential for climate change to cause vast human movement is a major global issue. Dominant approaches to climate-related migration take mobility as the starting point, exploring legal frameworks that tend to provide protection for migrants only after they move and overlooking measures that could help avoid forced movement in the first place. In contrast, Climate Change, Human Rights, and Adaptive Mobility provides a new conceptual and legal approach to human mobility in the context of climate change, one that seeks to compel and shape more proactive, anticipatory action. The author anchors her arguments in the international climate change regime, turning to obligations on adaptation found in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement. These obligations, though understudied and underutilized, have the potential to be a powerful legal tool. The book therefore seeks to lend them concrete legal meaning. It draws on international climate change and human rights law to weave together doctrinal analysis that considers treaty interpretation, regime interaction, and principles of environmental law with case studies in Bangladesh, the Pacific Islands, and the Sahel. At its core, the book argues that adaptation obligations require states to take measures to address foreseeable risks and ensure human rights. It further argues that developed countries that have contributed most to climate change have legal duties to support others in adapting to its effects, adding a collective dimension to the problem of climate change and mobility. This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read on Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.
About the Author
Lauren Sakae Nishimura is a lecturer at the University of Melbourne Law School. Her research explores how international obligations can contribute to efforts to adapt to climate change, including through anticipatory measures that account for human mobility. Dr Nishimura has more than a decade of experience as a litigator, advocate, and researcher in the United States, Southeast Asia, and with UN agencies and other international organizations. She received her DPhil in Law and an MSt in International Human Rights Law from the University of Oxford, a JD from Georgetown University Law Center, and a BA from Vassar College.
Reviews
The drivers and effects of human mobility in the age of climate change are highly complex, and terms such as 'climate refugees' and 'climate migrants' unhelpfully simplify the plight of the people whose futures are at stake. Acknowledging the intricate nature of the problem, Nishimura's book puts forward the notion of adaptive mobility, thereby offering a new way of thinking that is rights-based, people-centred, and forward-looking. Combining an in-depth analysis of states' international legal obligations related to adaptation with novel insights from various regions severely impacted by the climate crisis, Nishimura has crafted an essential resource for scholars and practitioners looking for appropriate legal responses to climate-related human mobility. * Harro van Asselt, Hatton Professor of Climate Law, University of Cambridge *
This timely book offers a fresh and compelling approach to climate mobility. By placing the international climate change regime front and centre, Nishimura shows how states' adaptation commitments could be better leveraged to help avert displacement, protect people from foreseeable risks of serious harm, and safeguard fundamental rights and resources. This thoughtfully crafted work is a must-read for scholars working on human mobility in the context of climate change and disasters. * Scientia Professor Jane McAdam AO, Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow and Director of the Evacuations Research Hub, Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, UNSW Sydney *
While it is still debated whether and when migration is a way for affected people to adapt to the adverse effects of climate change, or rather a particularly salient example of non-economic loss and damage, Lauren Sakae Nishimura's highly innovative book turns the discussion on its head. By asking how climate adaptation measures can help people stay in place or facilitate their migration in safety and dignity, and by exploring the benefits of integrating international human rights guarantees into states' adaptation obligations under the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement, she offers a new approach to climate change and human mobility. This approach has enormous conceptual and practical potential. * Walter Kalin, Professor Emeritus of Constitutional and International Law, University of Bern, and Envoy of the Chair of the Platform on Disaster Displacement *
This book is a timely and rigorous response to the question of how the obligations of states in the climate change regime interact with established protections from human rights law. Nishimura's voice rings clearly on how states must anticipate the needs of individuals and communities who move away from the harm caused by changing temperatures and weather patterns. States' duties to take account of the needs of other states (drawing on equity and other principles from the Paris Agreement) are also significant. The arguments showcase specialist legal and policy analysis as well as a broader examination of systemic integration in public international law. * Margaret A. Young, Professor, Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne *
Book Information
ISBN 9780198930037
Author Lauren Sakae Nishimura
Format Hardback
Page Count 320
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 619g
Dimensions(mm) 240mm * 160mm * 25mm
About the Author
Lauren Sakae Nishimura is a lecturer at the University of Melbourne Law School. Her research explores how international obligations can contribute to efforts to adapt to climate change, including through anticipatory measures that account for human mobility. Dr Nishimura has more than a decade of experience as a litigator, advocate, and researcher in the United States, Southeast Asia, and with UN agencies and other international organizations. She received her DPhil in Law and an MSt in International Human Rights Law from the University of Oxford, a JD from Georgetown University Law Center, and a BA from Vassar College.
Reviews
The drivers and effects of human mobility in the age of climate change are highly complex, and terms such as 'climate refugees' and 'climate migrants' unhelpfully simplify the plight of the people whose futures are at stake. Acknowledging the intricate nature of the problem, Nishimura's book puts forward the notion of adaptive mobility, thereby offering a new way of thinking that is rights-based, people-centred, and forward-looking. Combining an in-depth analysis of states' international legal obligations related to adaptation with novel insights from various regions severely impacted by the climate crisis, Nishimura has crafted an essential resource for scholars and practitioners looking for appropriate legal responses to climate-related human mobility. * Harro van Asselt, Hatton Professor of Climate Law, University of Cambridge *
This timely book offers a fresh and compelling approach to climate mobility. By placing the international climate change regime front and centre, Nishimura shows how states' adaptation commitments could be better leveraged to help avert displacement, protect people from foreseeable risks of serious harm, and safeguard fundamental rights and resources. This thoughtfully crafted work is a must-read for scholars working on human mobility in the context of climate change and disasters. * Scientia Professor Jane McAdam AO, Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow and Director of the Evacuations Research Hub, Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, UNSW Sydney *
While it is still debated whether and when migration is a way for affected people to adapt to the adverse effects of climate change, or rather a particularly salient example of non-economic loss and damage, Lauren Sakae Nishimura's highly innovative book turns the discussion on its head. By asking how climate adaptation measures can help people stay in place or facilitate their migration in safety and dignity, and by exploring the benefits of integrating international human rights guarantees into states' adaptation obligations under the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement, she offers a new approach to climate change and human mobility. This approach has enormous conceptual and practical potential. * Walter Kalin, Professor Emeritus of Constitutional and International Law, University of Bern, and Envoy of the Chair of the Platform on Disaster Displacement *
This book is a timely and rigorous response to the question of how the obligations of states in the climate change regime interact with established protections from human rights law. Nishimura's voice rings clearly on how states must anticipate the needs of individuals and communities who move away from the harm caused by changing temperatures and weather patterns. States' duties to take account of the needs of other states (drawing on equity and other principles from the Paris Agreement) are also significant. The arguments showcase specialist legal and policy analysis as well as a broader examination of systemic integration in public international law. * Margaret A. Young, Professor, Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne *
Book Information
ISBN 9780198930037
Author Lauren Sakae Nishimura
Format Hardback
Page Count 320
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 619g
Dimensions(mm) 240mm * 160mm * 25mm
