Climate Change and What Actions UN's Top Court Would Like Countries To Take
On July 30th, the United Nations’ highest court wants countries to help their people with the effects of climate change. They mention that it is an “urgent” matter, and that countries that don’t plan on taking steps to aid their citizens may end up having to pay for the damage caused by global warming. This is because global warming is worsening due to the increasing amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, especially from human activities like burning fossil fuels, which trap heat and warm the planet.
Scientists confirm that the world must keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, the 2015 Paris agreement, to avoid the worst effects of climate change. Most of the time, richer countries are those that cause the most of the pollution, yet poorer countries are the ones to bear the brunt of the climate impacts. The poorer countries continuously ask the richer countries to try harder to cut down fossil fuel emissions, but many countries have not taken steps to do so, thus not fulfilling their promises.
The court action idea was first from a group of law students in the South Pacific, supported by Vanuatu, a small island nation that is struggling to adjust to rising sea levels like many others. After years of effort, the group finally persuaded the UN’s General Assembly to ask its highest court to give opinions about 2 important questions related to global warming:
“What does the law require countries to do to protect the climate?”
“What happens if countries don’t do what they are supposed to do?”
The UN’s International Court of Justice listened to two weeks of arguments last December, and the judges heard from over 100 different countries and groups that wanted to share their ideas with the court.
Last Wednesday, the court found that the right to a “clean, healthy and sustainable environment” is a human right, and Judge Iwasawa Yuji said that climate change threatens “all forms of life”. They also hope all countries can take action, and look down upon those who don’t. Although there have not been specified measures to enforce this, people note the aim to reduce Western fossil fuel encouragement.
