Introduction - Climate Disaster Law: Barriers and Opportunities

Abstract

One might reasonably ask why we need a separate category of law devoted to climate disaster. Can’t the laws addressing natural disaster address this too? Just add climate and stir. Unfortunately, the science and empirical evidence suggest not. First, as we will see, the large majority of disasters are susceptible in some way to changes in atmospheric, land-based, and ocean temperatures. To understand the risks involved and the plausible policy responses, climate-change thinking must be built into the analysis. Second, even where garden-variety disaster planning might do the trick, ignoring the role of climate change leads us to ignore the moral responsibility we have to move as quickly as we can to a carbon-free economy. This collection applies the idea of Climate Disaster Law to International Law, Public Law, Environmental Law and Private Law, and considers the unique challenges, barriers and opportunities which climate disasters pose for law and policy.

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Keywords: Climate science, climate disasters, Climate Disaster Law, International Law, Public Law, Environmental Law, Private Law, barriers and opportunities

JEL Classification: K10, K30, K32, K33