The International Court of Justice (ICJ) will begin hearings in a historic climate change case on Monday looking at what countries around the world are legally required to do to prevent climate change and assist vulnerable nations in dealing with its disastrous effects.
After years of lobbying by island nations worried about their disappearance beneath rising sea levels, the United Nations General Assembly requested an opinion from the International Court of Justice last year on “the obligations of States in respect of climate change.”
Lawyers and representatives from over 100 countries and organisations will submit responses to the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
In the decade leading up to 2023, sea levels have risen by an average of 4.3 centimeters (1.7 inches) with regions of the Pacific rising much higher. The earth has also warmed by 1.3 degrees Celsius (2.3 Fahrenheit) from pre industrial times due to the use of fossil fuels.
The new hearings seek to establish a plan for how countries should safeguard the environment from harmful greenhouse emissions as well as the consequences of failing to do so. ICJ’s ruling would be non-binding advice with no direct ability to compel affluent governments to take measures to assist poor countries. However, it would be more than simply a significant symbol because it may serve as the foundation for additional legal actions such as domestic lawsuits.
Vanuatu is one of a group of small states calling for international legal action in the wake of climate change. Vanuatu will be the first to make arguments at the hearings which will last until December 13. The movement began in Pacific classrooms in 2019 when a group of students campaigned to bring the climate issue to the International Court of Justice. The opinion will be delivered in 2025.
The hearings start one week after Pacific and other developing countries denounced a deal made at the Cop29 meeting that calls for governments to contribute $300 billion a year in climate finance by 2035 to help poorer countries to deal with climate change.
