Legal Imperative of Climate Change Action

1. Legal Imperative of Climate Change Action By Professor Olanrewaju .A. Fagbohun, Ph.D Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies University of Lagos Campus Akoka, Lagos Presentation at the UNESCO/DTCA/AU/ECOWAS Parliament Quadra – Partite Consultative Workshop on Climate Change Policy and Legislation. Wednesday 20th – Thursday 21st October, 2010 Accra – Ghana E-mail: fagbohun@elri-ng.org

2. Climate Change – Definitions And Conceptual Clarification Climate change is “… a change which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods” - UNFCCC Definition • Climate change is changes in regional climate characteristics, including temperature, humidity, rainfall, wind and severe weather events; • Global warming is an overall warming of the planet, based on average temperature over the entire surface.

3. Climate Change Framework Green Gas Emissions • extinction of species/ecosystems, • exposure to water stresses; • land loss due to low level rise in coastal areas, • increase in mortality/morbidity associated with vector borne diseases/intensity of heat waves, • extreme weather events, flooding etc, • infrastructural disruptions, • food insecurity Climate Change & Variabilities Impact & Risks Mitigation (Reducing GHGs) Responses Adaptation (Consequences) • Policy/Legal /Regulatory Reforms • Knowledge Generation/Capacity Development • Climate Proof Investments • Developing nations are more vulnerable and at risk in meeting the challenges of climate change for reasons of “funding”, “lack of technology”,“poverty”” and “population pressures”.

4. Consequences of Climate Change - Africa • According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Africa is the most vulnerable continent to climate change and climate variability (multiple stresses – low adaptive capacity): • It is estimated that 72% of the dwellers in African cities live in slums (poor drainage/prone to flooding/ill health); • Over 25% of Africa’s population lives along a 100km – long coastal strip (East African coastline, the Red Sea and the West African coast); • A Sea-level rise of 0.5m as projected by the IPCC by mid-century could result in losses equivalent to more than 10% of the current GDP of affected countries; • Wide spread poverty is a dominant structural vulnerability; • The spread of malaria and other infectious diseases will put women, infants, and children at greater risk; • Water stress could affect as much as 75 – 250million people in Africa alone by 2020; • Lowered agricultural productivity/food security – as much as 50% yield decline by 2020 in some Africa countries; • Increases in vector-borne diseases like malaria.

5. The Role of Law • Changing practices with respect to climate change requires changes in the habits of billions of people, as well as organizations such as firms; • Practical policies to generate incentives for these behavioural changes require action by governments; • Law is central to restructuring and re-orienting conducts and activities that were hitherto accepted as safe, but, now found to be contributing to climate change.

6. Modes of Intervention • There are four broad modes through which the law can play a role in meeting the challenges of climate change: • self governing mode with focus by government on itself and its activities (“leading by example” or “getting your own house in order”); • control and compliance mode through the use of traditional forms of authority such as regulation and planning; • governing by provision, in which emission reductions are achieved through the delivery of particular forms of service and resources (BRT/Green Houses/Management of Waste Dumps); • mode of enabling, where governing takes place through facilitating, coordinating and encouraging action through partnership with private and voluntary sector agencies, and in the form of various types of community engagement (Interfaith initiatives, Clinton Foundation, Granting Soft Loans).

7. The Goals Of A Legal Framework An appropriate legal framework must be able to achieve the following, among others: • Transit a country to a clean energy economy (renewable energy and energy efficiency) without compromising her short-term competitiveness; • It must make more expensive low emission industries attractive to private sector investors through schemes that remove the short term technology and market risk; • It must be protective of innovations (intellectual property and patent rights) in order to attract investors; • Be sufficiently balanced in its approach as to receive broad support from the coalition of utility companies, oil companies, chemical companies, transportation sector, major manufacturers, environmentalists, and labor organizations;

8. Assure the companies operating within the country of the right market incentives and rewards that will help them remain competitive such that the jobs will remain in the country as the market transforms. The jobs must not “leak” to other countries; • Be able to encourage capacity programs that will train workers to succeed in the new energy economy (virtually all low emission industries contain a significant national – and often regional – learning component); • Low and moderate-income families must be protected from price increases caused by inadvertent or abusive practices through rebates and market stability schemes that can limit price volatility; • Must ensure that small business and agricultural enterprises are given appropriate exceptions and support;

9. Must give support for strong policing measures to establish market-place accountability and ensure the new carbon marketplace is transparent, fair and accountable; • Must be able to support adaptation strategies for localities facing potentially dramatic changes to their way of life, e.g. coastal communities; • Must be capable of supporting funding for the identification of at-risk populations, habitats, and ecosystems that are particularly susceptible to climate change; • Must encourage public/private partnership; • Must be able to encourage cooperative activities between different tiers of Government.

10. Unintended Impacts of Policy/Legal Responses • Efficiency, effectiveness, equity are not “absolute” but context specific, varying between countries, regions, sectors and actors.

11. Conclusion • Clear and concrete actions are needed to meet the challenges of climate change, and the law has a major role to play; • Climate change is a global problem whose solution cannot be achieved through the efforts of any single group/unit. Since it will not respond to unilateral fixed, then, all must be ready to work together; • Difficult problem: “interests”, “power”, “information” and “beliefs”; • Difficult understanding of the challenges at different levels of government, and a unified strategic vision and approach; • Comprehensive and localized risk and vulnerability assessments; • Coherent research to identify/describe impacts associated with near-term; long-term and abrupt global climate change; • Implementable dynamic and clear national strategies for climate change adaptation.