18 April 2023 – by Cosmo Sanderson
The UN General Assembly has passed a “milestone” resolution, championed by the tiny island nation of Vanuatu, seeking an opinion from the world’s top court on countries’ legal obligations to address the climate crisis.
The 29 March resolution asks the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to say what the “legal consequences” are for states that, “by their acts and omissions,” have caused significant harm to the climate.
Advisory opinions issued by the ICJ, such as the one sought in this resolution, are not legally binding. They can however carry great moral weight and influence governments and judges internationally.
The resolution was, remarkably, born in a Pacific island classroom four years ago. After campaigning by student activists, Vanuatu, an archipelago of roughly 80 islands in the southeastern Pacific, agreed in 2021 to champion the petition. It went on to spearhead a “core group” of 17 countries from around the world who supported the resolution.
Ultimately, it received the support of more than 120 countries in the General Assembly, the main policy-making organ of the UN.
Ishmael Kalsakau, prime minister of Vanuatu, which was last month hit by two category four cyclones within three days, said the vote represented “a win for climate justice of epic proportions.”
He said the “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.”
Other states including Costa Rica, Papua New Guinea and Bangladesh hailed the resolution as a “milestone” for climate justice.
Cynthia Houniuhi, president of the Pacific Island Students Fighting Climate Change, the group that helped bring the resolution to global attention, said they are “ecstatic that the world has listened to the Pacific Youth and has chosen to take action.”
The push to adopt the resolution had also received star power backing in the shape of legendary US actor and activist Jane Fonda.
Not everyone was happy. The United States, whose “climate president” Joe Biden had days earlier approved a huge oil drilling project in Alaska, shied away from having a judicial process to hold states’ feet to the fire on climate obligations – calling for a “diplomatic” approach.
The need for urgent action to address the climate crisis was once again thrown into sharp relief recently by the latest report of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. That report, which synthesised the findings of five earlier reports, found that there is a “rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all.”
