After seven years in the making, opening arguments in a landmark climate case over a Pacific island nation's survival are set to be heard by justices at the United Nations' only court for settling disputes among countries.
The case before the International Court of Justice, which opened on Monday, is led by law students fighting climate change, along with other legal experts, Vanuatu government officials, and the Melanesian Spearhead Group, an international organization with four island nation members.
“This is not solely Vanuatu’s story; it is a story of every young person striving for a secure and sustainable future," says Ralph Regenvanu, Vanuatu’s special envoy for climate change and environment.
The U.N. General Assembly sent the case to the ICJ last year, asking justices to provide a non-binding advisory opinion on “the obligations of states in respect of climate change.”
Half the nations on Earth are involved
Hearings in the case before The Hague, Netherlands-based ICJ are expected to last for two weeks as justices grapple with the question of whether the human activities that cause harmful climate impacts violate international law.
It's a global case that could become the most far-reaching the court has ever heard; nearly 100 countries and more than a dozen intergovernmental organizations are expected to testify.
"We come to you because existing action has not adequately addressed the crisis that is devastating our lives and our future," Gaston Browne, the prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, told the court.
For decades, he said, Antigua and Barbuda has experienced the grave consequences of climate change: Rising sea levels, driven by unchecked emissions of greenhouse gases, have eroded coastlines, swallowing land vital to his country.
"The principle of prevention, a cornerstone of international environmental law, demands that states take action to avoid causing significant harm to others," said Browne. "Yet, global emissions continue to rise."
The case also could set a precedent for what countries around the world are legally required to do to combat climate change – and what rich nations must do to help poorer, more vulnerable nations fight the widespread impacts.
Vanuatu and other small island nations are pressing for international legal intervention out of fear their shorelines will disappear with rising sea levels.
The group, Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change, which first came up with the idea of requesting an advisory opinion, argues that these are the six issues at stake:
- The law governing nations' obligations in relation to climate change: Judges must consider multiple relevant sources of international law, including but not limited to human rights law, customary and treaty-based international environmental law, climate law, and the law of the sea. Best available science must inform the interpretation of legal obligations as must the experiences of affected and marginalized communities worldwide.
- Human rights of present and future generations: Nations have a legal obligation to respect, protect, and fulfill the human rights of present and future generations, including the rights of Indigenous peoples, in the face of the climate crisis. Particular attention must be paid to disproportionately affected and historically marginalized communities.
- The preventive and precautionary approach: Nations must take proven actions in line with their legal duties, including complying with the preventive and precautionary principles. They must not rely on dangerous distractions like carbon offsets or speculative, unproven, and risky technologies to tackle the climate emergency in lieu of known, proven solutions.
- The right to remedy and reparations: Those most responsible for the climate crisis must remedy and repair their harm. Those whose acts and omissions have caused significant harm to the climate system, with consequences for human rights and the environment, must respect the right to remedy, cease their harmful conduct, guarantee non-repetition, and provide full reparation, including compensation, restitution, satisfaction, and rehabilitation.
- Corporate accountability: Nations have a duty to rein in corporations driving the climate emergency. Nations also must halt these industries’ physically destructive and socio-politically deceptive business activities and make polluters pay.
- The equitable phase-out of fossil fuels: Fossil fuels are driving the climate emergency. There is a legal duty under international human rights and environmental law to phase them out fast and fairly.
