Climate Change in the South Pacific: Impacts and Responses in Australia, New Zealand, and Small Island States

by Alexander Gillespie (Editor), William C.G. Burns (Editor)

ALEXANDER GILLESPIE & WILLIAM C.G. BURNS The idea for this book grew out of the Ecopolitics conference in Canberra, Australia in 1996. The conference captured the ferment of the climate change debate in the South Pacific, as well as some its potential implications for the region’s inhabitants and e- systems. At that conference, one of the editors (Gillespie) delivered a paper on climate change issues in the region, as did Ros Taplin and Mark Diesendorf, who are also c- tributors to this volume. This book focuses on climate change issues in Australia, New Zealand, and the small island nations in the Pacific as the world struggles to cope with possible the impacts of environmental change and to formulate effective responses. While Australia and New Zealand’s per capita emissions of greenhouse gases are among the highest in the world, their aggregate contributions are small. However, both nations may exert a disprop- tionate influence in the global greenhouse debate because their obstinate positions at recent conferences of the parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on C- mate Change (FCCC) may provide justification for other developed nations, as well as developing countries, to refuse to make meaningful reductions in their greenhouse gas emissions.

396 pages, Hardcover

First published November 30, 1999

About the author

Professor Alexander Gillespie obtained his LLB and LLM degrees with Honours from The University of Auckland. He did his PhD at Nottingham and post-doctoral studies at Colombia University in New York City.
Professor Alexander Gillespie is the first New Zealander to be named Rapporteur for the World Heritage Convention, involving international environmental diplomacy. Professor Gillespie is also the legal and policy advisor to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Department of Conservation and provides commissioned work for the United Nations, the Commonwealth Secretariat, and commercial and non-governmental organisations in New Zealand, Australia, United States, United Kingdom and Switzerland.
He has written over thirty articles that have been published in the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Al has published eight books; the latest book is "The Illusion of Progress; Unsustainable Development in International Law".He has been awarded a Rotary International Scholarship, Fulbright Fellowship, Rockerfeller Fellowship and a number of smaller domestic awards. In 2004 Al was awarded the New Zealand Law Foundation International Research Fellowship. Al is also the New Zealand lawyer/expert on a number of international delegations.