"UN Declares Sea-Level-Hit States Keep Statehood, Borders"
Montevideo Convention
1933 treaty listing population, territory, government, and capacity for relations as criteria for statehood.
Territorial sea
a coastal state's sovereign waters extending 12 nautical miles from its baseline under UNCLOS.
On 24 September, the UN General Assembly adopted its first-ever declaration on rising sea levels. The declaration responds to an accelerating physical trend: global sea level rise more than doubled from 2.1 mm a year in 1993-2002 to 4.7 mm a year in 2015-2024, according to the World Meteorological Organization, with 2024 alone recording a 6 mm rise, the largest on record.
The declaration's central legal question concerns statehood itself. Under the 1933 Montevideo Convention, a State needs four things: a permanent population, a defined territory, a government, and the capacity to enter into relations with other states. If rising seas swallow the territory or displace the population, does statehood survive? The declaration answers yes, affirming a presumption in favour of continued statehood even after land is lost to the sea.
This continuity extends to maritime boundaries. Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), a coastal state's territorial sea extends 12 nautical miles from its baseline, and its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) extends up to 200 nautical miles (about 370 km), giving it exclusive rights over marine resources. Both are normally calculated from the coastline. The declaration now says these zones stay fixed even if the coast physically retreats, preventing a shrinking coastline from shrinking a country's maritime rights. India's representative at the UN backed this position and also reaffirmed the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, meaning industrialised nations that historically emitted more should bear a greater share of the adaptation burden.
Sea level rise has two drivers: thermal expansion of warming ocean water and melting of land ice. Because oceans absorb enormous heat with a long lag, sea levels keep rising for centuries even after emissions reach net zero. A 2024 technical brief, Surging Seas in a Warming World, from the UN Secretary-General's Climate Action Team, projects about 38 cm of rise by 2100 on the lowest-emissions path and about 77 cm on a high-emissions path, measured from the early 2000s.
For small island states such as Tuvalu, Kiribati, and the Maldives, this is existential rather than incremental; land area itself can disappear. The declaration responds by asking countries to respect the human rights of displaced persons and to support mobility with dignity. One instance is already underway: by December 2025, more than a third of Tuvalu's roughly 11,000 people had applied for climate visas to Australia under a bilateral treaty. …
With reference to the United Nations Convention on the Law of Sea, consider the following statements:
1.A coastal state has the right to establish the breadth of its territorial sea up to a limit not exceeding 12 nautical miles, measured from baseline determined in accordance with the convention.
2.Ships of all states, whether coastal or land-locked, enjoy the right of innocent passage through the territorial sea.
3.The Exclusive Economic Zone shall not extend beyond 200 nautical miles from the baseline from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured.
Which of the statements given above are correct?
The Environment Protection Act, 1986 empowers the Government of India to
1.state the requirement of public participation in the process of environmental protection and its conservation, and the procedure and manner in which it is sought
2.lay down the standards for emission or discharge of environmental pollutants from various sources
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has predicted a global sea level rise of about one metre by AD 2100. What would be its impact in India and the other countries in the Indian Ocean region?
Consider the following pairs:
I.International Year of the Woman Farmer : 2026
II.International Year of Sustainable and Resilient (Resilient) Tourism : 2027
III.International Year of Peace and Trust : 2025
IV.International Year of Asteroid Awareness and Planetary Defence : 2029
How many of the pairs given above are correctly matched?
Consider the following statements regarding maritime zones under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS):
1.The territorial sea extends up to 12 nautical miles from the baseline.
2.The Exclusive Economic Zone extends up to 200 nautical miles from the baseline.
3.A coastal state has exclusive sovereignty, not just resource rights, throughout its Exclusive Economic Zone.
How many of the statements given above are correct?
As per the 1933 Montevideo Convention, which of the following are among the criteria for statehood?
1.A permanent population
2.A defined territory
3.Recognition by the United Nations General Assembly
4.Capacity to enter into relations with other states
Select the correct answer using the code below:
With reference to India's Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) notification, 2019, consider the following statements:
1.The no-development zone is 50 metres from the high-tide line in densely populated areas once a state's coastal plan is approved.
2.Elsewhere, the no-development zone is 200 metres from the high-tide line.
3.The 'Hazard Line' mapped by the Survey of India is currently used to fix the no-development zone's boundary.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
The UN General Assembly's 2025 declaration on sea level rise is significant because it:
Match the following India-linked island/coastal cooperation initiatives with their correct description:
A.Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC)
B.Infrastructure for Resilient Island States (IRIS)
C.Tuvalu-Australia climate mobility arrangement
1.Launched at the Glasgow climate summit
2.Set up in 2014 with 14 Pacific island countries
3.Allows climate-linked migration visas for a Pacific island population
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