International Environmental Law, Climate Change and Human Rights in the Niger Delta: A Socio-Legal Inquiry

Abstract

There is consensus within the world’s scientific community that climate change is well established and is attributable largely to the increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases resulting from human activity. It has also been widely recognized that the environmental changes brought about by global warming interfere with the realization of fundamental, internationally recognized human rights – including both civil and political rights and economic, social, and cultural rights. Climate Change impacts and measure taken to mitigate or adapt to it are already seriously affecting individuals and communities globally and especially in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. At the extreme, climate change threatens to destroy the life, properties and cultures of individuals therein, rendering their land uninhabitable, and depriving them of their means of subsistence. Particularly vulnerable to the physical impacts of climate change in Nigeria, are the inhabitant of the Niger-Delta Region, whose ways of life are inextricably tied to nature, and who lack the economic resources to adapt to the severe changes.