Top UN court says countries can be sued on climate change
It was the first time that the court, which is the United Nations' highest judicial body, has weighed in on climate change.
The unanimous opinion said that the failure of nations to take action to protect the climate system may constitute 'an internationally wrongful act.' It also found that protection of the environment is 'a precondition' for ensuring human rights and cited government support of fossil-fuel production as a potential violation of these principles.
Although the International Court of Justice has no mechanism to enforce an advisory opinion like this on nations, as a statement of legal principles the findings nevertheless could have far-reaching influence on litigation in courts around the world as well as on international negotiations over climate policy and funding.
The United Nations General Assembly requested the opinion after a spirited, yearslong campaign organised by law students from Vanuatu and other Pacific islands. That led to a two-week hearing in December at which more than 100 countries, organisations and experts addressed the court.
The court's 15 judges were asked to address two main questions, including what countries are obliged to do, under existing international laws and treaties, to protect the climate system and environment from greenhouse gases; and what the legal consequences are if, by their acts or omissions, they have caused significant harm. The panel is based in The Hague.
Powerful fossil fuel producers, including the United States and Saudi Arabia, argued before the court that the 2015 Paris accord, in which nearly all countries agreed to limit greenhouse gases, was sufficient to address climate change. Since then, President Donald Trump has withdrawn the United States from the Paris Agreement.
The court's opinion went further than many lawyers had expected. The judges found that all states have the obligation to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial times, a threshold laid out in the Paris Agreement.
Environmental groups hailed the decision. 'This decision gives moral and legal heft to all of us around the world fighting for the swift transition off fossil fuels,' said Jean Su, director of the Center for Biological Diversity's energy justice program.
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News.com.au
4 hours ago
- News.com.au
Trump, EU chief seek deal in transatlantic tariffs standoff
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The Age
6 hours ago
- The Age
Trucks start moving towards border crossing as Israel airdrops aid on Gaza
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West Australian
6 hours ago
- West Australian
Iran executes two members of banned opposition group
Iran has executed two members of the outlawed Mujahideen-e-Khalq opposition group for targeting civilian infrastructure with homemade projectiles. Mehdi Hassani and Behrouz Ehsani-Eslamloo, "operational elements" of the MEK, were sentenced to death in a verdict upheld by the Supreme Court, judiciary news outlet Mizan reported on Sunday. "The terrorists, in co-ordination with MEK leaders, had set up a team house in Tehran, where they built launchers and hand-held mortars in line with the group's goals, fired projectiles heedlessly at citizens, homes, service and administrative facilities, educational and charity centres, and also carried out propaganda and information-gathering activities in support of the MEK," the report said. The defendants were indicted with "moharebeh", an Islamic term meaning waging war against God, destroying public property and "membership in a terrorist organisation with the aim of disrupting national security". Semi-official Mehr news agency reported on Sunday that Ehsani-Eslamloo had been arrested in 2022 following an explosion at the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology claimed by the MEK. The MEK, known in English as People's Mujahideen Organisation of Iran, was a powerful leftist-Islamist group that staged bombing campaigns against the shah's government and US targets in the 1970s but ultimately fell out with the other factions of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Since then, the MEK has opposed the Islamic Republic and its leadership in exile has been Paris-based. The group was listed as a terrorist organisation by the US and the European Union until 2012.
