Historic climate change proceedings to open at UN’s top court

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (CN) — The highest court of the United Nations will open hearings on Monday into the climate crisis, with nearly 100 countries expected to participate in the historic proceedings.

In 2023, the U.N. General Assembly voted to ask the International Court of Justice for an advisory opinion on the legal obligations countries have to combat climate change and what they must do to repair existing environmental damage.

It will be the largest case ever undertaken by The Hague-based court. Over two weeks, judges will hear from 99 countries, ranging from the United States to Fiji, as well as 11 organizations, including the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and the World Health Organization.

“We are taking the world’s biggest problem to the world’s highest court,” Margaretha Wewerinke-Singh, an associate professor of international law at the University of Amsterdam who is also representing Vanuatu, told Courthouse News Service in the spring.

The push for the request was led by the island nation of Vanuatu, a chain of some 80 islands about 500 miles long in the South Pacific Ocean.

“Vanuatu and other small island states are among the most affected by climate change, even though they contribute only a fraction to global emissions,” the country’s special envoy for climate change, Ralph Regenvanu, told reporters in a briefing ahead of the hearings.

The idea of seeking an opinion from the ICJ began in a classroom in Fiji in 2021 at the University of the South Pacific. There, law students became convinced they had found the best path to force the global community to curb greenhouse emissions.

“For our generation and for the Pacific Islands, the climate crisis is an existential threat. It is a matter of survival, and the world’s biggest economies are not taking this crisis seriously,” Vishal Prasad, the director of Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change, told reporters.

The hearings start just a week after the end of the annual United Nations climate summit, known as COP. Richer countries agreed to pay $300 billion a year by 2035 to help with climate change mitigation — substantially less than the $1.3 trillion a year vulnerable countries say is needed.

By February all U.N. member states will have to submit plans for reducing emissions and adaptation measures.

Though nonbinding, advisory opinions carry significant legal and political weight. The court has previously taken up questions about the independence of Kosovo, the separation of Chagos from Mauritius and Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories.

In July, judges found a myriad of Israeli policies — including backing settlements and exploiting natural resources — violate international law and said all countries who assist Israel with its illegal activities are also in breach of their obligations.

The ICJ has another request pending. The International Labor Organisation has asked the high court whether workers have a right to strike.

Requests for advisory opinion can come from the General Assembly, the Security Council and around 20 other U.N.-affiliated organizations.

In May, the Hamburg-based International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea found that countries must take action to fight back against rising global temperatures and increasingly destructive storms in a separate advisory opinion. The world’s top maritime tribunal was asked by the Commission of Small Island States — a body formed in 2021 solely to pursue the advisory opinion that includes Antigua and Barbuda, Niue, Palau, Saint Vincent, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu — to weigh in on sea level rise.

Other courts have also found that states have obligations to combat climate change. In the first international court decision, the European Court of Human Rights in April sided with a group of senior Swiss women who argued their government violated their rights by failing to protect them from the impact of a warming planet.

Climate activists in the Netherlands and Germany have also succeeded in bringing cases against their governments for failing to act. The Dutch Supreme Court ordered the government to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in 2019, in the landmark Urgenda decision.

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