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11 CCLR 120 (2017)
The Oslo Principles and Climate Change Displacement

handle is hein.journals/cclr2017 and id is 136 raw text is: 120 1 The Oslo Principles and Climate Change Displacement The Oslo Principles and Climate Change Displacement: Missed Opportunity or Misplaced Expectations? Satvindar Nagra* The Oslo Principles delineate the legal obligations of States and enterprises to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by streamlining the fragmented legal regimes relating to climate change. A novel and demanding endeavour, they constitute a valuable attempt to compel governments to commit to climate change action. However, while asserting the breadth of their remit, the Oslo Principles neglect to meaningfully engage with climate change displace- ment - an increasingly urgent issue that has yet to be comprehensively addressed at the in- ternational level. This article explores the extent of the opportunity missed by the Oslo Prin- ciples in neglecting to promote the issue of climate change displacement to the internation- al agenda, thus facilitating a more comprehensive response to climate change, and ultimate- ly ascertains that any expectation that the Oslo Principles would meaningfully engage with climate change displacement is fundamentally misplaced. I. Introduction The Oslo Principles on Global Climate Change Oblig ations1 (Oslo Principles) distil the multiple legal regimes engaging with climate change to define the current obligations of States and enterprises to re duce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.2 In do ing so, they make a promising contribution to glob al efforts to compel international actors to protect the climate. However, while the substantive principles immediately indicate their obvious engagement with Satvindar Nagra, LLM candidate, University of Melbourne (Australia). For correspondence: <snagra@student.unimelb.edu .au>. The author particularly thanks Assoc Prof Margaret Young (University of Melbourne) for her generous guidance and en- couragement, and Prof James Silk (Yale Law School) and Prof Michael Gerrard (Columbia Law School) for their gracious and enlightening comments on the reasoning of the Expert Group. The author also gratefully acknowledges the input of Mr Sam Johnston (United Nations University) and the anonymous feed- back of the judging panel. Any errors remain the responsibility of the author. DO: 10.21552/cclr/2017/2/8 Expert Group on Global Climate Change Obligations, Oslo Principles on Global Climate Change Obligations (1 March 2015) <http://globaljustice.macmillan.yale.edu/sites/default/files/ files/OsloPrinciples.pdf> accessed 12 June 2017 (Oslo Princi- ples). 2 ibid Preamble. overlapping legal regimes such as international en vironmental3 or international trade4 law, the Oslo Principles omit purposeful reference to internation al human rights or refugee law as they manifest in the increasingly topical and urgent issue of climate change displacement, or human mobility. This is sur prising in light of the obvious influence5 of key pub lications by the International Bar Association6 (IBA Report) and the Allard K Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic7 (Lowenstein Memorandum) which highlight the human rights impact of climate 3 ibid Principle 14. 4 ibid Principle 20. 5 Jaap Spier et al, 'Commentary to the Oslo Principles on Global Climate Change Obligations' (30 March 2015) 7, 14-16, 70, 83, 93, 95 <http://globaljustice.macmillan.yale.edu/sites/default/files/ files/Osloo2oPrinciples2oCommentary.pdf> accessed 12 June 2017 (Oslo Principles Commentary). 6 International Bar Association, 'Achieving Justice and Human Rights in an Era of Climate Disruption' (Climate Change Justice and Human Rights Task Force Report, July 2014) <http://www .ibanet.org/Document/Default.aspx?DocumentUid-Of8ceel 2-ee56 -4452-bf43-cfcab196cc04> accessed 12 June 2017 (IBA Report). 7 Ben Farkas, Allana Kembabazi and Stephanie Safdi, 'Human Rights and Climate Change Obligations' (Draft Memorandum for the Experts' Group on Global Climate Obligations, Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic, Yale Law School, April 2013) (Lowenstein Memorandum). CCLR 212017

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