Page 20 - Islands Business October 2023 edition

COP28

Commissioner would be a useful next step to delivering energy General Assembly has voted to refer the case to the ICJ,
security and renewable energy to the Pacific. which will issue an opinion next year.
“We would like to see this on the agenda for the PIF Leaders “We are looking to pursue legal avenues to further push
in November in the Cook Islands,” he said. the throttle or push the envelope as far as climate ambition
Odo Tevi, Vanuatu’s Permanent Representative to the UN, and action is concerned. The clarification of international law
acknowledges that while the COP process is an important through advisory opinions is an important tool to strengthen
one because it brings everyone to the table to collectively our understanding of State obligations to deal with the
address humanity’s most pressing challenge, “it has also been climate crisis,” Tevi told Islands Business.
a frustrating process, but our only hope is in the multilateral “An advisory opinion in this case is not intended to single
process.” out any specific State or government nor intended to be
polarising but rather articulate what it is we need to be doing
Litigation to better address the climate crisis. And moving beyond just a
In mid-September, Vanuatu and Tuvalu were among duty to cooperate under the Paris Agreement.
a group of small island nations that also included the “We also see the approach of seeking redress from the
Bahamas, Antigua, and Barbuda, that asked the International Courts as a way to enhance the effectiveness of the Paris
Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) to determine Agreement and climate governance regime in its entirety.”
whether greenhouse gas emissions absorbed by the marine The head of Vanuatu’s Department of Foreign Affairs’
environment should be considered pollution. Maritime Ocean Affairs Division, Tony Tevi, put it this way:
The ocean absorbs 25% of carbon dioxide emissions, “Any country that goes to COP has a high level of
captures 90% of the heat caused by those emissions and expectation and that’s always the case, but the outcomes will
produces half the world’s oxygen, hence the case is seen as be determined by those powerful players. I think what we are
the first climate justice case aimed at protecting the ocean. aiming at is, we’re trying to use this pathway (litigation) to
Tevi said that should the Tribunal articulate that carbon say, you know, if you don’t do this, there is the ICJ decision,
emissions are indeed a pollutant under the Law of the Sea irrespective of what’s going to happen at COP28.
Convention, this could mean yet another important agreement “You don’t go hunting with one arrow, you go with two. So,
that could regulate carbon emissions and trigger state if you missed one, you still have another arrow there.”
responsibility.
Vanuatu has also led a campaign to ask the International Additional reporting by Kite Pareti
Court of Justice (ICJ) to issue an advisory opinion on
countries’ obligations to address climate change. The UN richard@islandsbusiness.com

CLIMATE LITIGATION ON THE UP AND UP

Climate litigation is becoming an integral part of securing climate action and promoting climate justice.”
securing climate action and justice, with the number of The total number of climate change cases has more than
climate change court cases more than doubling since 2017, doubled since a first report on the issue, from 884 in 2017
according to findings published by the United Nations to 2180 in 2022. While most cases have been brought in the
Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Sabin Center for US, climate litigation is a growing trend all over the world,
Climate Change Law at Columbia University. with about 17% of cases now being reported in developing
Released in July 2023, the findings in Global Climate countries, including Small Island Developing States.
Litigation Report: 2023 Status Review predict a continued “There is a distressingly growing gap between the level
upward trend as more cases deal with climate migration, of greenhouse gas reductions the world needs to achieve in
cases brought by indigenous peoples, local communities and order to meet its temperature targets, and the actions that
other groups disproportionately affected by climate change, governments are actually taking to lower emissions. This
and liability following extreme weather events. inevitably will lead more people to resort to the courts,”
“Climate policies are far behind what is needed to keep said Michael Gerrard, Sabin Center’s Faculty Director.
global temperatures below the 1.5°C threshold, with The cases include the voices of vulnerable groups: 34
extreme weather events and searing heat already baking cases have been brought by and on behalf of children
our planet,” said Inger Andersen, Executive Director of and youth under 25 years old, including by girls as young
UNEP. as seven and nine years of age in Pakistan and India
“People are increasingly turning to courts to combat the respectively, while in Switzerland, plaintiffs are making
climate crisis, holding governments and the private sector their case based on the disproportionate impact of climate
accountable and making litigation a key mechanism for change on senior women.

20 Islands Business, October 2023