The International Court of Justice will begin hearing arguments on Monday in a major case on how international laws can be used to protect the climate as global warming accelerates. It is the first time that the court, which is the United Nations’ highest judicial body, has taken up the climate issue, and a key issue at play is whether big polluters can be sued for failing to slow down climate change.
The court, a 15-judge body in The Hague that deals with disputes among nations, is holding the hearings over the next two weeks in response to a request submitted last year by the United Nations General Assembly.
The General Assembly asked the court to give its opinion on two questions: What obligations do governments have under international law to protect the Earth’s climate system from greenhouse gases? And what are the “legal consequences” if governments have failed in their obligations and “caused significant harm”?
The climate crisis has long been the subject of warnings from scientists and three decades of global negotiations to reduce harmful emissions, and the hearings follow on the heels of the latest United Nations climate summit, known as COP 29.
That summit, which ended last week in Baku, Azerbaijan, focused on negotiating finance for transitioning from fossil fuels to clean energy and helping poorer countries improve resilience to extreme weather.
Here is what to know about the Hague hearings, which can be followed from the court’s website.
Who will address the hearings?
The judges are seeking a wide range of views, and more than 100 countries and international organizations have asked to speak. They include small island nations threatened by sea-level rise; countries that are working to phase out fossil fuel use with clean energy; and major producers who depend on income from coal, oil and gas.
The United States is among those planning to take the floor, as are Australia, Britain, China, India, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia and South Africa. The court will also hear from groups as varied as the World Health Organization and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
Last week, the judges were briefed on current climate assessments and future risks by authors who contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a scientific body convened by the United Nations.
To influence the court, lawyers involved with the case say, countries cannot just make habitual political speeches. Instead, they will have to come up with legal arguments for why they continue to subsidize fossil fuels and pump ever greater volumes of harmful greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
Who hopes to benefit from the hearings?
Although the General Assembly engaged the court, the idea for the hearings initially came from a group of law students from Vanuatu and other Pacific islands. Others then joined in from the Caribbean and Asia.
The group argued that small nations like theirs had done little to contribute to a heating planet but were nonetheless suffering catastrophic consequences of climate change. Such nations have run up high debts to cope with cyclones, crumbling infrastructure, loss of arable land and vanishing fish stocks as seawater warms. A number of islands will simply drown.
That vocal group has since expanded into an alliance with developing countries to use all means available for their struggle, in particular the law.
They have concluded that as long as climate accords are based on voluntary commitments, their nations will never get the aid to which they feel entitled as victims of the major polluting countries. They argue that the list of broken promises and reneged-on commitments is long, and that suing for damages is the best way to be taken seriously.
Although the court’s advisory opinion on the legal questions will be nonbinding, the court’s stature means that the opinion will be an authoritative statement to provide guidance for or put more pressure on policymakers.
It may also influence national courts where activists are increasingly taking on governments and energy companies over climate damage.
What do international laws say about climate change?
Many countries have robust national laws to deal with pollution and the protection of nature and threatened species. But international law dealing with the climate system as a whole is scant, though it is slowly growing.
The Paris Climate Agreement of 2015 is a binding treaty, but it asks countries only for voluntary steps to keep down global temperatures. It has no mechanism to enforce its targets or pay for loss and damages resulting from climate change.
Specialists point to the 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea, the United Nations legal framework for the oceans and marine environment that covers 70 percent of the planet.
In May, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, a specialized United Nations court based in Hamburg, broke new ground by issuing a unanimous advisory opinion that excessive greenhouse gases are pollutants that could irreversibly harm the marine environment and must be cut back. The court said that polluting countries could be held accountable, although it remained vague in saying that richer nations should do more to assist countries with fewer resources.
The I.C.J. judges are expected to take note of that advisory opinion, which had also been sought by the group of small island nations.
In September, Vanuatu and other Pacific islands formally proposed to make “ecocide” a crime before the International Criminal Court, a separate body that tries individuals on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. But that process may take years.
And the Inter-American Court of Human Rights is expected to set new rules related to climate change soon. Its decision will apply to its 20 member countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Experts caution that international laws may be only a small piece in the giant puzzle of protecting the global climate system. Some argue that the most effective change will come only if the growing clean energy sector becomes bigger and cheaper than the pump of fossil fuels.
When will the court issue its opinion?
The judges have set no date for issuing their opinion, but lawyers involved with the case say they expect it next summer.
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