Photograph: Vlad Sokhin/World Bank. Retrieved from theguardian.com
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is due to begin hearings in a landmark climate change case on Monday, examining what countries worldwide are legally required to do to combat climate change and help vulnerable nations fight its devastating impact.
After years of lobbying by island nations, the UN General Assembly asked the ICJ last year for an opinion on “the obligations of States in respect of climate change.”
Lawyers and representatives from more than 100 countries and organisations will make submissions before the ICJ in The Hague.
The unprecedented hearings are aimed at finding a blueprint for how countries should protect the environment from damaging greenhouse gases, and what the consequences are if they do not. While the advisory opinions of the ICJ are non-binding, they are legally and politically significant.
Vanuatu will be the first to present arguments in the hearings, which run until 13 December. The opinion will be delivered in 2025. The campaign began in classrooms in the Pacific in 2019, when a group of students pushed to bring the climate issue to the ICJ.