Lyster, Rosemary; Verchick, Robert R.M. --- "Introduction to the Research Handbook on Climate Disaster Law" [2018] ELECD 488; in Lyster, Rosemary; Verchick, R.M. Robert (eds), "Research Handbook on Climate Disaster Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2018) 1

Book Title: Research Handbook on Climate Disaster Law

Editor(s): Lyster, Rosemary; Verchick, R.M. Robert

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN: 9781786430021

Section Title: Introduction to the Research Handbook on Climate Disaster Law

Author(s): Lyster, Rosemary; Verchick, Robert R.M.

Number of pages: 28

Abstract/Description:

Why Climate Disaster Law and what is it? Building on the work of other Disaster Law scholars, Climate Disaster Law applies to disasters which are climate related and means a portfolio of legal rules which deal with: prevention, emergency response, recovery and rebuilding, and compensating victims. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) defines climate disasters as: severe alterations in the normal functioning of a community or a society due to hazardous physical events interacting with vulnerable social conditions, leading to widespread adverse human, material, economic, or environmental effects that require immediate emergency response to satisfy critical human needs and that may require external support for recovery. The IPCC’s 2013 Working Group I Fifth Assessment Report, and the 2012 Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation (SREX) evaluate how hazards, like natural climate variability and anthropogenic climate change, influence the climate extremes that contribute to disasters when they intersect with the exposure and vulnerability of human society and natural ecosystems to these extremes. Although the IPCC states that attribution of changes in individual climate events to anthropogenic forcing is complicated, there is sufficient evidence to suggest that climate extremes such as heat waves, record high temperatures and, in many regions, heavy precipitation have changed due to climate change in the past half century. Climate disasters can also result from a series of non-extreme events which occur in combination with social vulnerabilities and exposure to risks.