1st Edition
Groundwater and Climate Change Multi-Level Law and Policy Perspectives
This book undertakes a scholarly assessment of the state of the art of law and policy perspectives on groundwater and climate change at the international, regional and national levels. A particular focus is given to India, which is the largest user of groundwater in the world, and where groundwater is the primary source of water for domestic and agricultural uses. The extremely rapid rise in groundwater use in many Indian states has led to a growing groundwater crisis that they must address. The existing regulatory framework has not adapted to the challenges and fails to address any environmental concerns. On climate change, India has adopted a policy framework that makes the link with water, but no legislation has followed up to make the link operational. The subject matter of this book has been widely debated with regard to each of its main two components separately. Bringing these two domains together is what makes this book unique. The link between climate change and groundwater has been acknowledged to some extent, and there is growing interest in studying the impacts of climate change on (ground)water. Similarly, in water and environmental law and policy, increasing attention has been given to the study of climate change and groundwater legal and policy frameworks but generally separately. This book contributes to filling this knowledge gap by drawing on contributions from leading experts in the field of environmental and water law and policy who have been involved in climate change and/or groundwater research.
The chapters in this book were originally published in a special issue of Water International.
1. Introduction to ‘Groundwater and Climate Change: Multi-level Law and Policy Perspectives’ Philippe Cullet and Raya Marina Stephan 2. Regulating the interactions between climate change and groundwater: lessons from India Philippe Cullet, Lovleen Bhullar and Sujith Koonan 3. Assessing India’s drip-irrigation boom: efficiency, climate change and groundwater policy Trevor Birkenholtz 4. Climate change, groundwater and the law: exploring the connections in South Africa Michael Kidd 5. Groundwater law, abstraction, and responding to climate change: assessing recent law reforms in British Columbia and England Birsha Ohdedar 6. EU legal protection for ecologically significant groundwater in the context of climate change vulnerability Owen McIntyre 7. Groundwater use in North Africa as a cautionary tale for climate change adaptation Marcel Kuper, Hichem Amichi and Pierre-Louis Mayaux 8. Global climate change and global groundwater law: their independent and pluralistic evolution and potential challenges Joyeeta Gupta and Kirstin Conti 9. Climate change considerations under international groundwater law Raya Marina Stephan
Biography
Philippe Cullet is Professor of International and Environmental Law at SOAS University of London, UK, and a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi, India.
Raya Marina Stephan is an international consultant, expert in water law. She works in international projects related to water management and transboundary waters, with a special focus on groundwater.
