Global warming could create “ghost states” with governments in exile ruling over scattered citizens and land that has been abandoned to rising seas.
Francois Gemenne, of the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations in Paris, said on Tuesday the likely loss of small island states such as Tuvalu and the Maldives raised profound questions over nationality and territory.
“What would happen if a state was to physically disappear but people want to keep their nationalities? It could continue as a virtual state even though it is a rock under the ocean and its people no longer live on that piece of land,” he said.
Gemenne said there was more at stake than cultural and sentimental attachment to swamped countries. Tuvalu makes millions of dollars each year from the sale of its assigned internet suffix .tv to TV companies.
“As independent nations they receive certain rights and privileges that they will not want to lose. Instead they could become like ghost states,” he said. “This is a pressing issue for small island states, but in the case of physical disappearance there is a void in international law.”
Experts say it is a matter of time before global warming drives up sea levels the 1m or 2m it would take to force permanent evacuation of islands such as Tuvalu, the highest point of which is 4m above water. Gemenne was speaking during a conference at Oxford University to discuss the implications of a catastrophic 4°C rise in global temperature, which many scientists fear will occur.
He said rich countries such as Britain had a responsibility to help people flee the worst impacts of rising temperatures.
“Industrialized countries have a duty to provide adaptation funding to make sure the costs of migration do not have to be met by the countries where the migration will happen,” Gemmene said.
Such migrants should not be considered “resourceless victims” and financial assistance needed to go beyond basic humanitarian aid and pay for infrastructure such as schools and hospitals. Up to 1 billion people could eventually be made to move because of climate change.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that many world leaders have expressed support for a proposal that would earmark US$100 billion a year for the next decade for concrete actions to curb greenhouse gases and help countries cope with the impact of climate change.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in