Landmark climate case brought by island countries begins at World Court

“The future of the planet” is at stake before the highest court of the UN, a representative of the island of Vanuatu declared on Monday, during hearings to establish a legal framework on how countries should fight climate change.

More than 100 States and organizations will present their declarations before the International Court of Justice (ICJ, based in The Hague), the largest number recorded in this court.

“The result of these processes will have repercussions for several generations, and will determine the destiny of nations like mine and the future of our planet“said Ralph Regenvanu, special climate change envoy for Vanuatu, a small Pacific island.

“This is perhaps the most important case in the history of humanity,” he added.

Activists hope that the ICJ judges’ decision will have important legal consequences in the fight against climate change.

Others fear that the request for a non-binding advisory opinion, which would have the support of this UN body, in reality it will have a limited effect and will probably take months, or years, to be issued.

Dozens of protesters gathered in front of the Peace Palace, headquarters of the ICJ, with banners that read: “The biggest problem before the highest court” and “Finance our future, finance the climate now.”

“I’m hopeful that the judges will say something useful that can really break the climate negotiations out of the deadlock we see every year at the COPs,” Jule Schnakenberg, a member of Global Youth for Climate Justice, told AFP.

“We really hope to see progress,” added the 26-year-old German.

These hearings begin days after the closure of the acrimonious climate negotiations at COP29 in Azerbaijan, in which developed countries committed to finance with at least 300,000 million dollars annually adaptation and fight against climate change in developing countries, between now and 2035.

Developing countries called the agreement an “insult” which, furthermore, does not mention any global commitment to abandon fossil fuelslargely responsible for global warming.

Last year, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution to refer two key questions to ICJ judges.

The first is what obligations States have under international law regarding the protection of the Earth’s climate system. against greenhouse gas emissions.

The second is what the legal consequences of these obligations should be given that States “by action or omission, have caused significant damage to the climate system and other elements of the environment.”

The second question also evokes the possible legal responsibilities of States for the damage caused to small, more vulnerable countries and to their populations, especially in the Pacific.

Joie Chowdhury, a legal scholar at the Center for International Environmental Law, based in the United States and Switzerland, does not expect the ICJ ruling to “provide very specific answers.”

On the contrary, this expert foresees that the court offers “a legal framework (…) from which more specific issues can be decided.” According to her, the decision of the judges, who should rule next year, “will clarify climate disputes at the national and international level.”

Several of the world’s most polluting countries, including the three largest greenhouse gas emitters, China, the United States and India, are among the 98 countries and 12 organizations that will present their observations.