Resolution asks ICJ to clarify countries’ obligations to fight climate change and the consequences they should face for inaction

Members of Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change at a protest during the COP27 UN summit in Egypt. The group has celebrated the passing of a UN resolution calling for legal clarification of state obligations on climate. Photograph: Nariman El-Mofty/AP

“Young people across the world will recall the day when we were able to get the world’s highest court, the international court of justice, to bring its voice to the climate justice fight,” said Solomon Yeo, campaign director of Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change (PISFCC), who is from Solomon Islands.

The resolution calls for the international court of justice (ICJ) to issue an opinion clarifying nations’ obligations to tackle the climate crisis and the consequences they should face for inaction.

“I don’t want to show a picture to my child one day of my island. I want my child to be able to experience the same environment and the same culture that I grew up in,” said Cynthia Houniuhi, also of Solomon Islands and who is president of PISFCC. “The environment that sustains us is disintegrating before our eyes.”

Frustrated by the world’s lack of action on climate change, law students in eight Pacific island nations founded PISFCC in 2019 and launched their campaign to persuade their leaders to take the resolution to the UN’s highest court.

Spearheaded by Vanuatu, Pacific nations soon took up the law students’ call.

Pacific Island nations are at risk of rising seas engulfing swathes of the islands. Scientists say both extreme weather and sea levels have worsened because of climate change caused by the burning of fossil fuels. The resolution asks the court to pay particular attention to the harm endured by small island states.

Vanuatu Prime Minister Ishmael Kalsakau greeted the resolution as “a win for climate justice of epic proportions.”

“Today’s historic resolution is the beginning of a new era in multilateral climate cooperation, one that is more fully focused on upholding the rule of international law and an era that places human rights and intergenerational equity at the forefront of climate decision-making,” he said.

UN secretary general António Guterres said he hoped the opinion, when issued, would encourage nations “to take the bolder and stronger climate action that our world so desperately needs”.

While the opinion from the ICJ will not be binding, it will encourage states “to actually go back and look at what they haven’t been doing and what they need to do” to address the climate emergency, said Nilufer Oral, director at the Center for International Law at the University of Singapore.

The court has other power it can bring to bear, Christopher Bartlett, climate diplomacy manager for the government of Vanuatu, explained. The court can reference other international legal instruments, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, and those do have the force of law for the countries that have ratified them.

“The international court of justice is the only legal authority that has a mandate to look at all of international law. While the advisory opinion itself is not binding, the laws upon which the advisory opinion will be speaking absolutely are legally binding and immediately applicable to states,” said Bartlett.

Bartlett said that some of the questions the ICJ will ask include: what harm to the climate has been done? Should states be forced to take certain actions? And is financial support a legal consequence of causing harm?

The resolution now goes to the court.

Countries have agreed to aim to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius with an upper limit of 2 degrees Celsius back in 2015 as part of the Paris Agreement. The agreement asks countries to submit their plans to curb greenhouse gases to the UN and regularly revise and update those plans.

Clarifying those obligations for states, as well as other promises to protect biodiversity and strengthen domestic policies are the main aims of the advisory opinion, said Ralph Regenvanu, Vanuatu’s climate change minister.

“We are also clear eyed that existing international frameworks have significant gaps,” he said, adding that the opinion could push for stronger legal measures like negotiating a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty or criminalising “climate destroying activities”. lionaire owner, meaning we can fearlessly chase the truth and report it with integrity. 2023 will be no different; we will work with trademark determination and passion to bring you journalism that’s always free from commercial or political interference. No one edits our editor or diverts our attention from what’s most important. 

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Pacific projectPacific islands

By Michael Birnbaum

The small Pacific island nation of Vanuatu won a major victory to advance international climate law Wednesday after it persuaded the U.N. General Assembly to ask the world’s highest international court to rule on the obligations of countries to address climate change.

The Pacific Parliamentarians Alliance on Deep Sea Mining (PPADSM) has welcomed the commitments made at the 7th Our Ocean Conference in Palau towards protecting and restoring the health of our ocean.

The 2022 Conference closed with 410 commitments worth US$16.35 billion across the six-issue areas of the conference.

The PPADSM and members acknowledged announcements from the Fiji Government and two philanthropic organisations in support of various efforts to ensure that the Pacific Ocean is safeguarded from deep seabed mining (DSM), which poses significant threats to marine ecosystems and biodiversity, and serves no benefit to Pacific peoples.

New Zealand’s Minister for Pacific Peoples, Aupito William Sio, said DSM developments at the International Seabed Authority (ISA) remain a key interest, but remained cautious, saying, “DSM has the potential to cause significant harm to the marine environment and we in Aotearoa New Zealand is actively engaged in negotiations to ensure that deep-sea mining cannot proceed without robust environmental protection in place.”

Green Party Member of Parliament of Aotearoa New Zealand, Teanau Tuiono said that Aotearoa is also part of the Pacific and the NZ Government must support the calls of iwi and hapū, environmental and community organisations to stop seabed mining in the South Taranaki Bight.

“I acknowledge ancestral connections between tangata whenua here and tagata moana across the Pacific. The moana (ocean) is the foundation of shared indigenous cultural and historical identities, it links communities here in Aotearoa to island homelands across the Pacific. The exploitation of the ocean holds much responsibility for the realities of many Pacific Islands societies today; realities that serve to shrink our options and entice our countries to repeat unsustainable patterns of economic development,” said Tuiono.

Fiji reaffirmed its position to ban DSM at the Conference, declaring that mining the ocean’s floors will lead to permanent and irreparable impacts. The PPADSM supports the statement of Fiji’s Attorney-General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, that “we cannot destroy what we do not understand” and that there is renewed momentum to oppose DSM from across the region – and we must build on it.

“We welcome Fiji’s leadership on this issue. It is vital for Pacific Island nations to make a strong stand against this exploitative industry that has the potential to cause substantial harm to our Ocean,” said PPADSM Chair, Ralph Regevanu.

PPADSM also welcomed the decision by the Tuvalu Government to rescind its plans to advance proposals for DSM.

Tuvalu’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Simon Kofe said the challenge with Tuvalu is the Seabed Minerals Act which was passed by the previous government which allows mining companies to apply to Tuvalu. But he added that his government is not in support and came to the decision of revoking its sponsorship of Circular Metals Ltd.

“We are pleased to know that Tuvalu will revoke its sponsorship of mining company Circular Metals, and we remain ready to assist Tuvalu,” said Regenvanu.

He added that political momentum is growing in the region on DSM with the launch of a new high-level regional political alliance against this destructive industry – the Pacific Parliamentarians Alliance on DSM.

“We the PPADSM collective is also appealing to Pacific leaders, parliamentarians, legislators, senators, and governors to join this Pacific momentum to protect our ocean.”

“The establishment of the Alliance is crucial and will put pressure on individual states and mining companies that have intentions of moving ahead with proposals on DSM in the Pacific Ocean,” Regenvanu said.

The PPADSM believes that as Pacific islanders, it’s our moral obligation to care for our Ocean. It sustains us and gives us our identity. We must oppose all attempts that are made to advance DSM in our region.

This was originally published at PPADSM on 02 May 2022 and reposted via PACNEWS.