Legal consequences of ocean change in the South Pacific – outline of the problem

Abstract

Global climate change scenarios are seen as future concerns, but this is not the case for the Pacific island countries and territories. The natural sciences have already built substantial knowledge about the oceanographic, geological and atmospheric processed associated with global warming and ocean change. Nonetheless, deep views from the social sciences, as well as legal perspective, need to be collected, analysed and executed, in order to know what happens when the climate change effects threaten the viability of sovereign states. Small island developing states contributed the least to global warming, yet they are suffering the most from its effects, while legal consequences of losing the most or all of their territory will lead those nations to the threat of losing sovereign status in the international arena. The 8 Pacific Ocean, being the largest water basin on Earth, remains an isolated region in terms of geopolitics and research. This article is therefore a modest attempt to collect models and scenarios of the future of the Pacific states concerning their full existence as the equal legal entities, but also to present some international law proposals in this matter. Secondly, its goal is to sensitize European readers to certain issues of the geographically remote South Pacific, which might eventually affect all of us.

French EEZs in the Pacific in the context of ocean change

“…The Pacific Ocean comprises of about 25,000 islands, so more than all other water bodies combined. Many legal problems and dilemmas in the international law doctrine derive from the effects of ocean change in the Pacific region (Siekiera, 2019). The Law of the sea, based on UNCLOS, was not equipped for dealing with many challenges streaming from the sea level rise, decreasing or even losing the territory by the Pacific islands, along with their EEZs.…”

Підвищення Ефективності Експлуатації Суднових Технічних Засобів За Рахунок Використання Низькосірчистих Сортів Суднового Палива

“…In [29] conducted a life cycle comparison of marine fuels for the IMO 2020 sulfur cap. The articles [30][31][32][33][34][35] cover various legal, operational, and environmental aspects of maritime transportation, including responsibility for pollution, legal consequences of ocean change, autonomous ships, vulnerability assessment of ship equipment, environmental efficiency of ship operation, and ship information security risks.…”