Prime Minister of Samoa Presented with New Climate Change Book
The Honourable Prime Minister of Samoa, Susuga Tuilaepa Lupesoliai Sailele Malielegaoi, was recently presented with his very own copy of In the Eye of the Storm—Reflections from the Second Pacific Climate Change Conference.
The book, which was launched during the recent virtual 2020 Pacific Ocean, Pacific Climate Change Conference, was edited by Alberto Costi and James Renwick. The book is a compilation of the contributions of some of the keynote speakers at the Second Pacific Climate Change Conference held in Wellington in 2018, which includes the Honourable Prime Minister himself, who delivered the keynote address. The book was officially handed over by the Director General of the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme, Leota Kosi Latu.
The pdf of the book is available online and will also be made available soon on a number of other sites for free download or purchase.
In addition to co-editing the book and co-authoring the introductory chapter, Alberto wrote a chapter examining the current state of international law with regard to legal personality, especially where sea level rise threatens low-lying Pacific Island nations and their very existence. The chapter argues against loss of status through a narrow reading of the criteria of statehood, favouring instead strategies that strengthen their right to existence. The chapter then considers whether there could be a future basis for action to protect low-lying states, including the use of the concept of responsibility to protect (R2P) as a way to develop a duty to assist climate change afflicted states. There is nothing new with the use of R2P in this field—many have written on it, including the former Australian Minister Hon Gareth Evans, who addressed this matter at the annual meeting of the American Society of International Law in 2009—but Alberto was happy to follow up in that chapter on relevant aspects of R2P related to climate change he had already written about as early as 2005 and presented at many events since then.