Environmental campaigners from 98 countries and 12 organisations began giving evidence on Monday to the International Court of Justice in a landmark case aimed at laying down rules for how rich nations should support poorer ones on the frontlines of climate change.
Fittingly, the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu – heavily impacted by rising temperatures – opened proceedings at the Peace Palace in The Hague.
The campaign to bring the issue before the UN's top court began in 2019 with law students at the University of Vanuatu in Port Vila.
Their drive led to a UN General Assembly resolution in 2023 asking the ICJ for a formal opinion on the legal obligations of states to protect the climate system.
The court will also consider whether large polluting nations can be held liable for damages to vulnerable countries like small island states.
On the eve of the hearings in the Dutch city, students from Vanuatu gathered near the court along with other activists.
“In small islands like Bonaire and like Vanuatu, there's no time to say: ‘Oh, we hope that in 10, 15 or 20 years things will be settled'," Kjell Koon, from the Caribbean island of Bonaire, told RFI.
"No, we need help now. We need a solution now and we need to create a world where we and future generations can live in peace and harmony."
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Ralph Regenvanu, Vanuatu's special envoy for climate change and the environment, said it was imperative that fossil fuels be phased out and more money provided to poorer nations bearing the brunt of climate change.
"We are hoping the ICJ can provide a new avenue to break through the inertia we experience when trying to talk about climate justice," he told the Reuters news agency.
Although the ICJ's opinions are non-binding, they are legally and politically significant. Lawyers say the ICJ's eventual ruling will likely be cited in lawsuits about the effects and impacts of climate change.
Fiji’s Attorney General, Graham Leung, called the hearings an historic opportunity for small island developing states in their quest for justice.
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The hearings follow the Cop29 summit, where a $300 billion climate finance plan by 2035 was criticised as inadequate by developing nations.
"As Cop29 failed to provide a clear direction for climate justice and ambition, any developments from the ICJ will now only become more weighty,” said Lea Main-Klingst, a lawyer with the environmental law charity ClientEarth.
As well as small island states and developing countries, the court will also hear from the United States and China – the world's top two emitters of greenhouse gases. The oil producer group OPEC will also give its views.
The 15 judges at the ICJ will hear submissions until 13 December and deliver their decision next year.
The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), in collaboration with the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), gave a written statement to the ICJ emphasising the need for what it calls a just transition.
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“Climate change is not just an environmental challenge, it is a profound social and economic crisis," said ITUC general secretary Luc Triangle.
"A just transition, ensuring decent work and fairness, must be at the heart of international climate obligations. This is a chance to put workers and communities at the forefront of climate solutions.”
Climate activists who represent their homes in the Pacific say that time and time again the outcomes of Cop summits fail to meet the scale of the crisis. Papua New Guinea withdrew from the talks entirely this year, calling them “a total waste of time”.
“We represent communities where every fraction of a degree of warming translates to real losses: homes swallowed by the sea, crops destroyed by salinity, and cultures at risk of extinction,” said Dylan Kava, a regional facilitator for the Climate Action Network.
“Pacific nations are left grappling with escalating costs of adaptation and recovery, often relying on meagre resources and the resilience of our people."
(with newswires)
