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Climate Change as a Threat to Peace

Impacts on Cultural Heritage and Cultural Diversity

by Sabine von Schorlemer (Volume editor) Sylvia Maus (Volume editor)
©2015 Edited Collection 209 Pages
Open Access

Summary

This volume takes a fresh look at climate change as a threat to peace and its impacts on cultural heritage and cultural diversity. It proceeds under the assumption that the impacts of climate change on cultural heritage and cultural diversity may challenge sustainable global peace. As innovative feature, the interdisciplinary nexus between cultural heritage and peace is explicitly taken account of. Accordingly, corresponding threats on climate change and conflict on the one hand, and protection of cultural property and climate change on the other, are pulled together into one conceptual triangle. While the importance of the protection of cultural heritage in armed conflicts tends to become more and more recognized, the crucial role of cultural policy as a reconciliatory, proactive element of building and securing of sustainable peace has so far been largely underestimated. This volume brings together opinions of renowned experts in the fields of international law as well as natural sciences, engineering, humanities and social sciences. The focus lays on the legal and institutional challenges faced by national and international stakeholders, by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in particular. Moreover, it alludes to broader issues of mitigation, adaptation and resilience.

Table Of Contents

  • Cover
  • Title
  • Copyright
  • About the editors
  • About the book
  • This eBook can be cited
  • Table of Contents
  • List of Abbreviations
  • Reflections on Climate Change, Heritage and Peace
  • Interdiscipinary Approaches of Linking Climate Change with Politics and Law of Cultural Heritage
  • Man-made Climate Change: A Major Challenge for World Heritage Conservation
  • Climate Change as a Threat to International Peace – The Role of the UN Security Council
  • The United Nations Human Rights-Based Approach to Climate Change – Introducing a Human Dimension to International Climate Law
  • Impacts of Climate Change on Cultural Heritage and Cultural Diversity
  • Urban Resilience in Climate Change
  • The Impact of Climate Change on Slow Degradation of Monuments in Contrast to Extreme Events
  • Impact of Global Change on World Heritage and on Environmental Resources: The Need for an Integrated Management Approach
  • The Culture of Prevention: Heritage and Resilience
  • Lex Lata and De Lege Ferenda – Legal Challenges of Cultural Property Protection in the Context of Climate Change
  • What Consideration is Given to Climate and to Climate Change in the UNESCO Cultural Heritage and Property Conventions?
  • Protecting the Tangible, Safeguarding the Intangible: A Same Conventional Model for Different Needs
  • The Cultural Dimension of Climate Change: Some Remarks on the Interface between Cultural Heritage and Climate Change Law
  • World Cultural Heritage Sites and Climate Change: Management Issues
  • Concluding Remarks

List of Abbreviations

← 6 | 7 → CBD

Convention on Biological Diversity

CDG

Capacity Development and Governance

CDM

Clean Development Mechanism

CER

Certified Emission Reduction

COP

Conference of the Parties

CSICH

Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage

DESURBS

Designing Safer Urban Spaces

DRF

Dose-Response Functions

DRR

Disaster Risk Reduction

ECHR

European Court of Human Rights

ERU

Emission Reduction Unit

EU

European Union

FAO

Food and Agriculture Organisation

GHG

Green House Gas

HFA

Hyogo Framework of Action for Disaster Risk Reduction

HUL

Historic Urban Landscapes

ICCPR

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

ICCROM

International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property

ICESCR

International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

ICJ

International Court of Justice

ICOMOS

International Council for Monuments and Sites

ICQHS

International Center on Qanats and Historic Hydraulic Structures

ICT

Information and Communications Technology

ILM

International Legal Materials

IPCC

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

IUCN

International Union for Conservation of Nature

IWRM

Integrated Water Resources Management

LECZ

Low Elevation Coastal Zone

MAB

Man and the Biosphere Programme

NGO

Non-Governmental Organisation

OHCHR

Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights

OUV

Outstanding Universal Value

← 7 | 8 → OWHC

Organization of World Heritage Cities

SES

Social Ecological System

SFA

Systems and Flux Analysis

SLM

Soil and Land Use Management

UN

United Nations

UNEP

United Nations Environment Programme

UNESCO

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

UNFCCC

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

UNHRC

United Nations Human Rights Council

UNIDROIT

International Institute for the Unification of Private Law

UNISDR

United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction

UNSC

United Nations Security Council

UNTS

United Nations Treaty Series

UNU

United Nations University

UNU-FLORES

United Nations University Institute for Integrated Management of Material Fluxes and of Resources

VCLT

Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties

VMT

Vehicle Miles Travelled

WHC

World Heritage Convention

WHL

World Heritage List

WM

Waste Management

WRM

Water Resources Management

← 8 | 9 → Sabine von Schorlemer & Sylvia Maus

Reflections on Climate Change,
Heritage and Peace

IClimate Change as a Threat to Peace

“Does Climate Change Kill People in Darfur?”1 – The question is striking, but the title of a 2011 journal article captures the quintessence of a vivid and topical debate over the impacts of man-made climate change on international peace and security. Influential voices such as the UN Secretary-General2 and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)3 have established a direct link between the armed conflict and climate change, notably for the conflict in Darfur.4 A commentary of the International Institute for Strategic Studies partly attributes the Arab Spring to climate change.5 And the well-known Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change purports that “climate-related shocks have sparked violent conflict in the past”.6

← 9 | 10 → However, the patterns of correlation and causation are far from being firmly established and both critics and proponents of a conception of “climate change as conflict catalyst” are still wrestling with the problem.7 While the link between scarcity of natural resources and conflict has long been established,8 the claim that the “potential for the changing climate to induce conflict or exacerbate existing instability (…) is now recognized”9 should be approached with caution. Critics argue that even though “there is unquestionably a general causal connection (...), at least in the sense that climate change is a ‘threat multiplier’”,10 it is difficult to establish a clear causal link between climate change and conflict.11 Indeed, in a long-term study ranging from 1990 to 2009, scholars examined climate-conflict relationships using data from over 16.000 violent events in East Africa (Burundi, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, Tanzania, and ← 10 | 11 → Uganda)12 and concluded that climate factors have a “modest influence in terms of predictive power in a model with political, economic, and physical geographic predictors”.13 They continue that “our findings question the most simplistic climate–conflict narratives. The relationships between rainfall and temperature variability and violence are complex and warrant careful interpretation”.14

In 2007, the United Nations Security Council attended to the topic and held a high-level debate on climate change and international peace and security, addressing for the first time in this forum the potential impact of climate change on security.15 In a Statement by the President of the Security Council, the “Security Council expresses its concern that possible adverse effects of climate change may, in the long run, aggravate certain existing threats to international peace and security”.16 The 2009 Secretary-General Report Climate Change and its Possible Security Implications provides a noteworthy summary of issues relating to climate change and security and identifies five “channels through which climate change could affect security”:17

(a)Vulnerability: climate change threatens food security and human health, and increases human exposure to extreme events;

(b)Development: if climate change results in slowing down or reversing the development process, this will exacerbate vulnerability and could undermine the capacity of States to maintain stability;

(c)Coping and security: migration, competition over natural resources and other coping responses of households and communities faced with climate-related threats could increase the risk of domestic conflict as well as have international repercussions;

← 11 | 12 → (d)Statelessness: there are implications for rights, security, and sovereignty of the loss of statehood because of the disappearance of territory;

(e)International conflict: there may be implications for international cooperation from climate change’s impact on shared or undemarcated international resources.18

Equally, emerging threats which merit the attention of the international community are highlighted,19 namely loss of territory, statelessness and increased numbers of displaced persons,20 stress on shared international water resources,21 and disputes surrounding the opening of the Arctic region to resource exploitation and trade.22

Overall, the report echoes the prevalent perception that conceives of climate change as a threat multiplier, “exacerbating threats caused by persistent poverty, weak institutions for resource management and conflict resolution, fault lines ← 12 | 13 → and a history of mistrust between communities and nations, and inadequate access to information or resources”.23

Details

Pages
209
Year
2015
ISBN (PDF)
9783653052053
ISBN (ePUB)
9783653968507
ISBN (MOBI)
9783653968491
ISBN (Hardcover)
9783631662236
DOI
10.3726/978-3-653-05205-3
Open Access
CC-BY-NC-ND
Language
English
Publication date
2015 (March)
Keywords
Klimawandel kulturelles Erbe kulturelle Vielfalt UNESCO
Published
Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Bern, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Wien, 2015. 209 pp., 17 coloured fig., 4 b/w fig., 3 tables

Biographical notes

Sabine von Schorlemer (Volume editor) Sylvia Maus (Volume editor)

Sabine von Schorlemer, Saxon State Minister for Higher Education, Research and the Fine Arts, is chair holder of the UNESCO Chair in International Relations at the Faculty of Law at the Technische Universität Dresden. Sylvia Maus is researcher and scientific coordinator at the UNESCO Chair in International Relations, at the Technische Universität Dresden.

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