The Southern Ocean and changing environmental conditions: Antarctic Treaty System

Antarctica and the Southern Ocean, including the atmosphere above, are key components of the global climate system. Changes to environmental conditions in Antarctica and Southern Ocean are having a range of impacts and associated challenges. A range of science challenges are clear; governance challenges are equally salient and centre on how the Antarctic Treaty System addresses the impacts of a changing environment. This chapter first outlines key elements of environmental change in both Antarctica and the Southern Ocean, which cannot be decoupled since they are bound together by contemporaneous forces. The chapter then explores the governance response to such changes as they particularly relate to the Southern Ocean. The next section evaluates this response and attempts to draw insights on future options. It concludes by asking whether sovereign state independence and the traditional bifocalism that characterizes Antarctic fora is standing in the way of taking tough decisions, or whether this is to be expected given the diversification of authority within individual governments over ‘climate change’, fisheries, Antarctica and international treaties.