Sex, Sea Turtles, and Missed Opportunities: Biodiversity-Related Provisions in the Paris Agreement

Would the loss of a species due to climate change qualify as a ‘climate change-related disaster’? This paper considers the statuses of the seven species of sea turtle and the numerous and inter-related threats that they face from climate change. In particular, warming temperatures threaten to have a disrupting effect on the ratios of male to female turtles, given that turtles have temperature-dependent sex determination. The paper considers the climate change-related threats to sea turtle reproduction as an intense example of the sorts of disruption that climate change may have on biodiversity generally. It is argued that this is the level of informed understanding with which negotiators should approach drafting and adopting international environmental instruments. The paper then considers the extent to which biodiversity-related considerations are reflected in the Paris Agreement of 2015, concluding that far more could and should have been done to include these.