The past two decades have seen a remarkable broadening of interest in global warming from a research concern on the part of a limited number of scientists to a political problem on a worldwide scale. The nature of this transformation would itself be a fruitful study for a mixed team of social scientists and natural scientists. It would be valuable to assess the differing nature of the staging posts along this road: the First World Climate Conference in 1979, which was a meeting of scientists talking to scientists; the Villach Assessment of 1985, which was a meeting of scientists whose report was given attention by the policy advisers of a number of governments; the Second World Climate Conference of 1990, which consisted of a scientific meeting followed by a Ministerial Meeting; and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change of 1992 signed by 158 countries at the UN Conference on Environment and Development in June 1992. The present publication is a welcome contribution of the followup to UNCED. By focusing on a specific problem, it avoids the pitfall of undue generalization and provides the basis for fruitful discussion between natural scientists, social scientists, and policymakers. To choose as the area of concentration a particular scale also helped to produce meaningful discussion likely to lead to action.

Klappentext

The possible impacts of global warming on transboundary resources such as water and fish and the ability of regional organizations to deal with those impacts are closely examined. Using a historical approach, the ways in which regional organizations have responded to changes in the location and amount of resources are assessed. The book closes in suggesting that policymakers review the possible roles for regional organization in issues related to environmental change. If the climate changes, resources are likely to shift at local and regional levels, possibly leading to interstate conflicts.

Inhalt
I: Executive Summary.- I: Executive Summary.- II: Summary of Discussion Sessions.- II: Summary of Discussion Sessions.- III: Discussion Papers.- Background on the Climate Change Issue.- The regionalization of climate-related environmental problems.- The role of regional organizations in addressing climate change and other complex environment and development issues.- The climate change issue: Scientific aspects.- The climate change issue: Policy aspects.- Transnational regional responses to global climate change: Options, obstacles, opportunities.- An environmental security dimension of global climate change.- Water Resources.- Climate change and water resources.- Regional organizations and climate-related changes in the water regime.- Climate change and international water problems: Issues related to the formation and transformation of regional organizations.- Regional organization for water utilization in the Middle East.- Transboundary water resources on the Iberian Peninsula.- Marine Resources.- Some aspects of regional cooperation in the marine sciences.- The potential role of regional organizations related to the marine environment in the context of global climate change.- Scarcity, property allocation, and climate change.- Regional Organizations.- The Organization of American States (OAS) and issues of environment and development.- Regional organizations and environmental change: An East African example.- The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and climate change.- The roles of IGOs in international environmental management: Arena or actor.- Role of regional organizations in the context of climate change.- IV: Appendix.- Biographical Statements of Participants.- Item 4, Provisional Agenda, Working Group III.- List of Participants.- Suggested Bibliography.- Glossary of Acronyms.