A landmark climate change case will be opened at the UN’s highest court as island nations fear rising seas

THE HAGUE (AP) – The United Nations’ highest court will face the biggest case in its history on Monday, when it opens two weeks of hearings on what countries around the world are legally required to do to combat climate change and help vulnerable countries combat the damage caused. impact.

After years of lobbying island nations who fear they could simply disappear under rising seas, the UN General Assembly asked the International Court of Justice last year to provide an opinion on “States’ responsibilities in relation to climate change.”

“We want the court to confirm that the behavior that destroyed the climate is illegal,” Margaretha Wewerinke-Singh, who leads the legal team in the Pacific island of Vanuatu, told the Associated Press.

In the ten years to 2023, sea levels have risen by a global average of 4.3 centimeters (1.7 inches), with parts of the Pacific rising higher still. Earth has also warmed 1.3 degrees Celsius (2.3 Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times due to the burning of fossil fuels.

Vanuatu is one of a group of small states seeking international legal intervention in the climate crisis.

“We are living in front of the impact of climate change. We are witnesses to the destruction of our lands, our livelihoods, our culture and our rights,” Vanuatu’s climate change ambassador Ralph Regenvanu told the media before the trial.

Any court decision would be non-binding advice and cannot directly force rich countries to take action to help struggling countries. However, it can be more than just a powerful symbol as it can serve as a basis for other legal actions, including domestic lawsuits.

On Sunday, before the trial, rights groups will join environmental groups from around the world. Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change – who first developed the idea of ​​asking for advice – and World Youth for Climate Justice organized an afternoon of speeches, music and discussions.

Starting Monday, the Hague-based court will hear 99 countries and more than a dozen intergovernmental organizations in two weeks. It is the largest list in the institution’s nearly 80-year history.

Last month at the United Nations’ annual climate conference, countries agreed on how rich countries can support poor countries in the face of 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 experts, and alarming nations, say is needed.

“For our generation and the Pacific Islands, the climate crisis is an existential threat. It is a matter of survival, and the major economies of the world do not take this problem seriously. We need the ICJ to protect the rights of people in frontline areas,” said Vishal Prasad, Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change, told reporters at the forum.

15 judges from around the world will seek to answer two questions: What are countries obliged to do under international law to protect the climate and environment from human-caused greenhouse gas emissions? And what are the legal consequences for governments when their actions, or lack of action, have seriously harmed the climate and the environment?

The second question specifically refers to “small island developing States” that are likely to be most affected by climate change and “members of “current and future generations affected by the adverse effects of climate change.”

The judges were even briefed on the science of global warming by the UN’s climate change organization, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, before hearing the cases.

The case at the ICJ follows a number of decisions around the world ordering governments to do more to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

In May, the UN tribunal on the law of the sea said that carbon emissions are as relevant as pollution in the sea and that countries must take measures to adapt and reduce their negative effects.

That ruling came a month after Europe’s highest human rights court said countries must better protect their people from the effects of climate change, in a landmark decision that could have implications across the continent.

The host country of the ICJ, the Netherlands, made history when the court ruled in 2015 that protection from the potentially dangerous effects of climate change is a human right and that the government has a duty to protect its citizens. The decision was upheld in 2019 by the Dutch Supreme Court.