After this vote, the International Court of Justice will have to define the “obligations incumbent on States” in the protection of the climate system.
A vote received with applause. The UN General Assembly on Wednesday 29 March adopted a resolution “historical” aimed at having international justice define the “obligations” States in the fight against climate change. An event that comes after years of campaigning in the Vanuatu archipelago, on the front line in the face of the devastation of global warming.
With the adoption by consensus of this resolution co-sponsored by more than 130 States, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) will now have to specify the different “State Obligations” in the protection of the climate system, “for present and future generations”. “An unprecedented challenge of civilizational scope”insists the text.
“Together, you write history”, launched UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres from the podium, believing that even non-binding, the future opinion of the United Nations judicial body could help the leaders of the planet to “take the braver and stronger climate action the world so desperately needs”.
“Equity between generations”
The Vanuatu government launched this “historic initiative” in 2021, after a campaign initiated by students at a university in Fiji two years earlier.
A week ago, UN climate experts (IPCC) again warned that global warming should reach the threshold of +1.5°C compared to the pre-industrial era by 2030-2035, the most ambition of the Paris agreement. While States’ national commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions under the Paris Agreement are not binding, the resolution stresses the importance of other international texts, such as the Universal Declaration of the man.
“This resolution puts human rights and intergenerational equity on climate change at the center – two key elements generally absent from mainstream discourse”commented Shaina Sadai, of the think tank Union for Concerned Scientistsat a time when the European Court of Human Rights is holding a hearing on a first climate action against States, France and Switzerland.
legal and moral weight
“Describe [la résolution] as the most significant global breakthrough since the Paris Agreement seems accurate”she added, describing her as a “not incredibly important” especially as “guide” for national courts around the world increasingly seized of appeals against States.
Even if the opinions of the ICJ, the judicial body of the UN, are not binding, they carry an important legal and moral weight, often taken into account by national courts. Vanuatu and its supporters therefore hope that the future opinion, expected within about two years, will encourage governments to accelerate their action, either by themselves or through legal action against States.