74 Global Recommendations on Nationality and Statelessness in the Context of Climate Change Global Recommendations on Nationality and Statelessness in the Context of Climate Change GLOSSARY GLOSSARY GLOSSARY Exposure: The situation of people, infrastructure, housing, production capacities and other tangible human assets located in hazard-prone areas.87 Adaptation: Adjustments in ecological, social or economic systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli and their effects, which moderate harm or exploit beneficial opportunities. Extreme weather event: Weather events that are unexpected, unusual, severe or unseasonal and that are ‘rare at a particular place and time of year’.88 Current rates of climate change are leading to changes in the frequency, intensity, spatial extent, duration and timing of some extreme weather events.89 Extreme weather events may occur on a variety of temporal and spatial scales, including single, discrete, rapid-onset events that occur in a matter of days or even hours, such as a hurricane or downpour, and others that refer to extreme weather conditions over a season such as below-average rainfall or drought. Extreme weather events include heatwaves, droughts, extreme precipitation or rainfall, tropical storms and tornadoes, snowstorms and storm surges. Civil registration: The continuous, permanent, compulsory and universal recording of the occurrence and characteristics of vital events, like births, deaths, marriages, and divorces, in accordance with legal requirements in each country. It is a crucial process for establishing legal identity, providing vital statistics, and maintaining population data. Climate change: A change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere, and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods.82 Climate-related hazards: Include both extreme weather events and slow-onset events and their potential impacts.83 They may be variously characterized as ‘natural’ phenomena or processes (such as seasonal rainfall or temperatures), ‘socio-natural’ (such as when rainfall leads to floods in urban areas without adequate drainage), and ‘anthropogenic’ as influenced by anthropogenic climate change in addition to natural variability in the climate or weather.84 See also Hazard. Derivative nationality: The process by which certain individuals automatically acquire nationality as a result of a parent or spouse’s nationality status. Derivative nationality is acquired by operation of law, meaning it happens automatically rather than requiring a separate application process. Disaster: A serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society at any scale due to hazardous events interacting with conditions of exposure, vulnerability and capacity, leading to one or more of the following: human, material, economic and environmental losses and impacts.85 Displacement: The forced movement of persons within a country (internal displacement) or across internationally recognized state borders (cross-border displacement), including as a result of, or in order to avoid, serious danger or harm related to the adverse effects of climate change86, disasters, armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, or human rights violations. Foundling: Children of unknown origin found in a territory. Nationality laws generally apply to children born within a territory, or to national parents. As the birth location and parentage of foundlings are unknown, such laws may prevent foundlings from attaining nationality unless it is explicitly granted to them. Hazard: A process, phenomenon or human activity that may cause loss of life, injury or other health impacts, property damage, social and economic disruption or environmental degradation.90 Human mobility: A descriptive term used under the UNFCCC system and processes to collectively refer to three forms of population movement in the context of climate change: Displacement, Migration and Planned Relocation.91 Legal identity: There is no international legal definition of the term ‘legal identity’. According to the UN’s operational definition, ‘legal identity’ is defined as the basic characteristics of an individual’s identity. e.g. name, sex, place and date of birth conferred through registration and the issuance of a certificate by an authorized civil registration authority following the occurrence of birth. In the absence of birth registration, legal identity may be conferred by a legally recognized identification authority. This system should be linked to the civil registration system to ensure an integrated approach to legal identity from birth to death. Legal identity is retired by the issuance of a death certificate by the civil registration authority upon registration of death.’92 Loss and damage (or losses and damages): Climate change impacts resulting from extreme weather events and slow onset events, which may include economic losses (loss of resources, good and services traded in markets) or non-economic losses (losses that are not commonly traded in markets such as human lives, cultural heritage, displacement and, potentially, statelessness).93 75