Rich countries, island states lock horns on climate change at UN court

THE HAGUE: The World Courtroom concludes hearings on Friday (Dec 13) on international locations’ authorized obligation to battle local weather change and whether or not massive states contributing most to greenhouse gas emissions could also be responsible for injury precipitated to small island nations.

The Worldwide Courtroom of Justice will concern an opinion on these questions, possible in 2025, that might be cited in local weather change-driven litigation around the globe.

Throughout two weeks of hearings, wealthy international locations of the worldwide north broadly argued that present local weather treaties just like the Paris Settlement, that are largely non-binding, ought to be the idea for deciding international locations’ duties.

For his or her half, growing nations and small island states bearing the brunt of local weather change sought sturdy measures to curb emissions, and need to regulate monetary help from rich polluting nations.

“On the present trajectory of greenhouse gasoline emissions, Tuvalu will disappear fully beneath the waves”, Eselealofa Apinelu, representing the small island state, advised the judges.Practically 100 states and organisations took half in hearings on the establishment, the highest UN court docket for disputes between states, the place small island nations had spearheaded the efforts to get the UN Normal Meeting to ask for an advisory opinion.

World Courtroom opinions are usually not binding, however carry authorized and political weight. Consultants say the court docket’s opinion on local weather change may set a precedent in local weather change-driven lawsuits in courts from Europe to Latin America and past.

“The facility of an ICJ opinion doesn’t lie solely in its direct enforcement, however within the clear message and steerage it’s going to ship to the various courts around the globe which are grappling with the query of state obligations to handle the local weather emergency and treatment local weather hurt,” Nikki Reisch, director of the Heart for Worldwide Environmental Regulation’s Local weather & Power Program, advised Reuters. 

The hearings opened in early December with Pacific island nation Vanuatu, which urged judges to recognise and restore the hurt brought on by local weather change.