1. Introduction

Climate change according to the UNFCCC means a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and that is, in addition to natural climate variability, observed over comparable time periods. See: United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change 1992, Art 1 No. 2.

CNA Military Advisory Board (2007), http://​www.​cna.​org/​sites/​default/​files/​National%20​Security%20​and%20​the%20​Threat%20​of%20​Climate%20​Change%20​-%20​Print.​pdf. All websites cited in this book have been last accessed on September 2014.

The CNA Corporation Military Advisory Board is a military research organization funded by the U.S. government.

http://​www.​cna.​org/​reports/​climate.

CNA Military Advisory Board (2014), http://​www.​cna.​org/​sites/​default/​files/​MAB_​2014.​pdf.

Ibid., p. 3.

Ibid., p. 3.

Buhaug et al. (2008).

Fifth Assessment Report (AR5), http://​www.​ipcc.​ch/​report/​ar5.

The IPCC is the leading body in assessing climate change and its aftermath from scientific and socioeconomic perspectives. It was established by the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 1988 and is under the auspices of the United Nations. See http://​www.​ipcc.​ch/​organization/​organization.​shtml.

IPCC WGII AR5 Summary for Policymakers (2014), p. 20. The CNA Military Advisory Board is in line with this view and regards climate change as a threat multiplier. See: CNA Military Advisory Board (2014), p. 2.

Malthus (1798).

E.g., in the influential article ‘The Coming Anarchy,’ Kaplan (1994): ‘It is time to understand ‘the environment’ [in Malthus’ 1798 essay] for what it is: the national-security issue of the early twenty-first century. The political and strategic impact of surging populations, spreading disease, deforestation and soil erosion, water depletion, air pollution, and, possibly, rising sea levels in critical, overcrowded regions like the Nile Delta and Bangladesh – developments that will prompt mass migrations and, in turn, incite group conflicts – will be the core foreign-policy challenge from which most others will ultimately emanate, arousing the public and uniting assorted interests left over from the Cold War.’

Hulme (2008), p. 4.

Ibid., p. 14.

Stern (2006), http://​www.​occ.​gov.​uk/​activities/​stern.​htm.

Brunnée et al. (2012), p. 25.

Gleditsch and Nordås (2009), http://​www.​humansecuritygat​eway.​com/​documents/​IPRI_​IPCCClimateConfl​ictNexus.​pdf, pp. 1, 2.

See the discussion in the Chap. 6.

Since the early 1990s, Thomas Homer-Dixon studied the link of environmental stress and violence in poor countries. See: Homer-Dixon (1994).

Regarding the general link of environmental degradation and conflict, see: Spillmann (1995), pp. 4 ff.

German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) (2008).

Ibid., p. 1.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Giry (2007), http://​www.​nytimes.​com/​2007/​12/​09/​magazine/​09climateconflic​t.​html.

Nordås and Gleditsch (2005), p. 24.

Salehyan (2007), http://​www.​foreignpolicy.​com/​story/​cms.​php?​story_​id=​3922.

High Representative/the European Commission (2008).

Ibid., p. 2.

Welzer (2008), p. 206.

Examples of the fires in Greece in the summer of 2007 and the events after the earthquake in Peru in 2007 are presented. See: Ibid.

Ibid.

Sullivan (2008), p. 297; Hague and Ellingsen (1985), pp. 299–317; Esty et al. (1999), pp. 49–72. Generally on the link of climate change and conflict see: Welzer (2008); German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) (2008).

Sondrop and Patel (2003), pp. 139, 140; IPCC 1990–2014 (five reports), http://​www.​ipcc.​ch/​publications_​and_​data/​publications_​and_​data_​reports.​htm; Sullivan (2008), p. 297; IPCC Report 2001, http://​www.​grida.​no/​publications/​other/​ipcc_​tar; Gleick (1993), pp. 79–112; Wolf (2006).

IPCC WGII AR5 Summary for Policymakers (2014), pp. 20, 21.

http://​unfccc.​int/​essential_​background/​items/​2877.​php.

When referring to the term ‘climate change,’ this analysis will always mean anthropogenic climate change.

http://​www.​ipcc.​ch/​report/​ar5.

Greenhouse gases are gases that accumulate in the atmosphere and act like a greenhouse, letting the sun’s radiation into the earth’s atmosphere but preventing some of the infrared radiation from escaping back into space. The greenhouse effect thereby traps a percentage of the heat near the earth’s surface. Carbon dioxide is the main greenhouse gas, followed by methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur hexafluoride. See: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report, AR4 (2008), p. 81. This phenomenon of global temperature rise is known as global warming. Global warming is the gradual rise of the Earth’s average surface temperature caused by increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. See: National Geographic, What Is Global Warming?, http://​environment.​nationalgeograph​ic.​com/​environment/​global-warming/​gw-overview.

IPCC WGI AR5 Summary for Policymakers (2013), p. 15.

http://​www.​ipcc.​ch/​report/​ar5.

IPCC WGI AR5 Summary for Policymakers (2013), p. 4.

Livelihood and poverty find mention in the latest IPCC report as well. See: IPCC WGII AR5 Summary for Policymakers (2014), p. 21.

On this issue, see also: Brunnée et al. (2012), pp. 24, 25.

According to article 38 para. 1 of the Statute of the ICJ, international law encompasses international conventions, whether general or particular, establishing rules expressly recognized by the contesting states; international custom, as evidence of a general practice accepted as law; the general principles of law recognized by civilized nations; subject to the provisions of Article 59, judicial decisions and the teachings of the most highly qualified publicists of the various nations, as subsidiary means for the determination of rules of law.

Oppenheim (1992), p. 4.

Sands et al. (2012), p. 16.

Green Climate Fund, http://​gcfund.​net/​about-the-fund/​mandate-and-governance.​html.

http://​unfccc.​int/​adaptation/​workstreams/​loss_​and_​damage/​items/​6056.​php.

It is arguable that some greenhouse gas pollution is illegal and that this conduct might be subject to criminal persecution. However, this analysis will exclude environmental criminal persecution. For further reading, see: White (2012).

‘Developing countries will be particularly badly hit, for three reasons: their geography; their stronger dependence on agriculture; and because with their fewer resources comes greater vulnerability. There is therefore a double inequity in climate change: the rich countries have special responsibility for where the world is now, and thus for the consequences which flow from this difficult starting point, whereas poor countries will be particularly badly hit.’ Stern (2006), p. 29, http://​webarchive.​nationalarchives​.​gov.​uk/​+/​http://​www.​hm-treasury.​gov.​uk/​independent_​reviews/​stern_​review_​economics_​climate_​change/​stern_​review_​report.​cfm. ‘There are sharp differences across regions and those in the weakest economic position are often the most vulnerable to climate change and are frequently the most susceptible to climate-related damages, especially when they face multiple stresses.’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report, AR4 (2008), p. 65.

Sullivan (2008), p. 297; Hague and Ellingsen (1985), pp. 299–317; Esty et al. (1999), pp. 49–72. Generally on the link of climate change and conflict see: Welzer (2008); German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) (2008).

German Society for international co-operation (GIZ), see: http://​www.​giz.​de/​en/​html/​index.​html.

Dhaka and the areas around Khulna, Satkhira, Burguna, Bagerhat, Barisal, and Amtali were visited during the author’s six-week research trip in 2011.

Nordås and Gleditsch (2007), p. 628.

Gaines (1990–1991), p. 808.

Welzer (2008), p. 202.

Sands et al. (2012), p. 869.

Ibid., pp. 11, 12.

Ibid., p. 12.

Kiss and Shelton (2004), p. 756.