Global climate change and global groundwater law: their independent and pluralistic evolution and potential challenges

Abstract

Although the climate and groundwater systems have close links, the international climate change regime and global groundwater laws have developed independently, despite being negotiated within a few years of each other. Hence this article addresses the question: Do global legal instruments on climate change and groundwater consider the geophysical links between the two systems, and how can their legal frameworks be improved? It argues that there are six geophysical links between groundwater and climate change which are presently inadequately accounted for in the legal regimes and there are four key contradictions between the two legal systems. It makes four recommendations to enhance the linkages between the systems.