The Hague — The United Nations’ highest court is scheduled to take up the biggest case in its history on Monday. The case is set to open two weeks of hearings on what countries around the world must legally do to combat climate change and help vulnerable countries fight its devastating impacts.
After years of lobbying by island nations who fear they could disappear due to rising sea levels, the United Nations General Assembly last year asked the International Court of Justice for an opinion on “state obligations to address climate change.”
“We hope the court will confirm that climate destruction is illegal,” Margareta Wewerinke-Singh, who heads the legal team for the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu, told The Associated Press.
In the decade to 2023, sea levels rose by an average of about 4.3 cm (1.7 inches) globally, with some parts of the Pacific rising still higher. Additionally, burning fossil fuels has warmed the world by 1.3 degrees Celsius (2.3 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times.
Vanuatu is one of a small group of countries pushing for international legal intervention into the climate crisis.
“We live on the front lines of climate change impacts. “We have witnessed the destruction of our lands, livelihoods, culture and human rights.” Vanuatu’s special envoy for climate change, Ralph Regenvanu, told reporters ahead of the hearing.
Any decision by the court is not only non-binding advice, but cannot directly force rich countries to take action to help struggling countries. But it would be more than just a powerful symbol, as it could become the basis for other legal actions, including domestic lawsuits.
Ahead of Sunday’s hearing, advocacy groups will bring together environmental groups from around the world. Pacific Island students fighting climate change, who first developed the idea to solicit advisory input, plan an afternoon of speeches, music and debate with World Youth for Climate Justice.
Starting Monday, the Hague court will hear from 99 countries and more than a dozen intergovernmental organizations over two weeks. This is the largest lineup in the institution’s nearly 80-year history.
At the United Nations’ annual climate conference last month, countries agreed on how rich countries can support poor countries facing climate disasters. Rich countries have agreed to raise at least $300 billion a year by 2035, but the total falls short of the $1.3 trillion that experts and threatened countries say is needed.
“For our generation and the Pacific islands, the climate crisis is an existential threat. This is a matter of survival, and the world’s largest economies are not taking this crisis seriously. “We need the ICJ to protect the rights of people on the front lines.” Vishal Prasad of Pacific Island Students Fighting Climate Change told reporters at the briefing.
Fifteen judges from around the world will attempt to answer two questions. What obligations do states have under international law to protect the climate and environment from human-induced greenhouse gas emissions? And what are the legal consequences if government actions, or lack of action, have caused serious harm to the climate and environment?
The second question specifically refers to “small island developing states”, which are likely to be hardest hit by climate change, and “current and future generations affected by the adverse effects of climate change.”
The judges also received a briefing on the science of rising global temperatures from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the UN’s climate change agency, ahead of the hearing.
The ICJ case follows several rulings around the world ordering governments to do more to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
In May, the United Nations Tribunal for the Law of the Sea said carbon emissions constitute marine pollution and that countries must take steps to adapt and mitigate their side effects.
The ruling comes a month after Europe’s highest human rights court said countries must better protect their citizens from the consequences of climate change in a landmark ruling that could have implications for the entire continent.
The Netherlands, the ICJ’s host country, made history in 2015 when the court ruled that protection from the potentially devastating effects of climate change is a human right and that governments have a duty to protect their citizens. This ruling was upheld by the Dutch Supreme Court in 2019.
