Climate Change as a Security Risk: Too Hot to Handle?

Abstract

Climate change has been considered as a security risk in political discussions. There has however been minimal discussion on whether climate change would qualify as a ‘national security issue’ in terms of the provisions of the GATT or international trade and investment agreements. This becomes crucial since countries across the globe have undertaken a number of measures to deal with the impacts of climate change or to fulfil their commitments with international treaties on climate change. In the future, states may be required to undertake measures to tackle sudden dangers arising from climate change which may threaten their territories or population. This gives rise to a strong possibility that countries may seek to justify these measures as being taken under the guise of a security risk which permits unilateral action. This article seeks to find out whether the ‘security exception’ clause in GATT (as interpreted in Russia – Traffic in Transit) and similar provisions in international trade and investment agreements could be used to justify measures taken to mitigate or tackle situations related to climate change, which then would be determined as a national security risk. Climate change, security exception, GATT, investment agreements, FTAs, Article XXI GATT