Fury as US opposes climate obligations at UN's highest court | Climate crisis

Climate justice campaigners have condemned the United States after the world's largest historic emitter of greenhouse gases objected to countries being legally obligated to tackle the climate crisis.

The US intervention came Wednesday as part of the historic climate hearing at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, where island nations and other climate-vulnerable countries are demanding that rich and pollutants most responsible for climate degradation are judged legally. responsible.

Climate disasters are wreaking havoc across the planet, with less and less hope that current climate commitments will reduce global temperatures as the United States and other fossil fuel-using countries continue to increase production.

Yet, according to the United States, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the 2015 Paris Agreement, and other existing non-binding treaties should be preserved and are the best path forward.

The current UN climate change regime embodies the clearest, most specific and most timely expression of the consent of States to be bound by international law on climate change, said Margaret Taylor, Legal Adviser at the State Department, before ICJ judges on Wednesday.

Any other legal obligations relating to climate change mitigation identified by the Court must be interpreted consistently with States' obligations under this treaty regime, Taylor added.

Climate justice activists reacted with fury.

Once again, we are witnessing a discouraging attempt by the United States to evade its responsibilities as one of the world's largest polluters, said Vishal Prasad, director of the University Students' Association. Pacific Islands fighting climate change. The United States is content with its status quo approach and has taken every possible step to shirk historical responsibility, ignore human rights, and reject climate justice.

Ashfaq Khalfan, director of climate justice at Oxfam Americas, said: “It is absurd that the Biden administration is arguing before the ICJ that countries do not have clear legal obligations to reduce carbon pollution, d 'especially as it prepares to entrust executive power to a tested climate. a climate denier like President-elect Trump, whose policies risk profound harm to U.S. climate action.

Australia, China and Saudi Arabia, the world's largest fossil fuel economies and among the world's worst emitters of greenhouse gases, have also opposed legal accountability sought by developing countries.

After years of campaigning by vulnerable nations and the global climate justice movement, the UN has asked the ICJ to provide an advisory opinion on the obligations of states in combating climate change and the legal consequences that could result if they do not do so. More than 100 countries and organizations will testify over two weeks, and many hope the hearings will elevate science to the forefront, ensuring international law reflects the realities of climate breakdown and the urgent need for transformative action.

ICJ advisory opinions are not binding but carry significant legal and political weight, and they will likely be considered an authoritative document in future climate litigation and international climate negotiations.

The countries most vulnerable to climate change, mainly Pacific countries led by Vanuatu, are pushing for fair financial support and compensation for irreversible loss and damage from the states most responsible, as they face to an existential threat from rising tides, floods, drought and other climate disasters.

On Wednesday, Vanuatus' special envoy for climate change, Ralph Regenvanu, said his country was disappointed by the United States and others. These countries, among the largest emitters of greenhouse gases in the world, have highlighted existing treaties and commitments which have unfortunately failed to motivate substantial reductions in emissions. These treaties are essential, but they cannot hide inaction or substitute for legal accountability.

Taylor also appears to reject the idea that the ICJ should propose in its opinion that legacy emitters be held responsible for past pollution. An advisory procedure is not the way to challenge whether individual states or groups of states have violated their climate change obligations in the past or whether they take responsibility for reparations… nor would it be appropriate to do so, she said.

The ICJ is one of three international courts responsible for producing an advisory opinion on the climate crisis, alongside the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (Itlos) and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Itlos discovered earlier this year that greenhouse gases are pollutants that states have a legal responsibility to control that goes beyond the UNFCCC. The Inter-American Court held hearings in Barbados and Brazil this year and is expected to be next to issue its opinion. The ICJ's decision will likely take several months.

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