Carbon Emitters on Trial at The Hague

Not since the Cuban Missile Crisis has a UN forum seen a debate as dramatic for the future of the species. Today the International Court of Justice in The Hague (aka “the World Court”) began two weeks of hearings to produce an advisory opinion about what if any obligations national governments have to protect against the harms caused by climate change, and what if they fail to meet those obligations. We bring you highlights of, as it were, the case for the prosecution.

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Speaking first was Vanuatu’s Ralph Regenvanu, and the small island’s attorney general.

Other witnesses included

* Julian Aguon, the Guam-based lawyer with Blue Ocean Law who recounted the litany of communities across the Pacific that have already fallen victim to rising seas due to climate change, forced to permanently relocate, and losing their basic right to exist under international law. Aguon also made the connection between the ICJ’s earlier ruling on Gaza, which we imagine will get some responses. [We fool ourselves talking about this in terms of future harms. With all sympathy for Tenbury Wells in northern England, Fiji has a chilling “Standard Operating Procedure” plan for phased retreat from vulnerable areas from the whole country. It is already being implemented.]

* Professor Margarita Wewerenke-Singh of the University of Amsterdam, who made an extremely cogent case of how existing law has led to key precedents we’ve covered on this show, and how those precedents relate to today’s set of hearings: the Swiss Klimasenniorren case at the European Court of Human Rights as well as other cases, and even a mention for Vermont’s ‘make polluters pay’ climate Superfund law.

* And Cynthia Houniuhi, president of Pacific Island Students Fighting Climate Change, that Hollywood-ready plucky group of law students who did the work making the case possible.

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