International Law: UN Court: Defaults in climate protection contrary to international law

If states violate climate protection obligations from international agreements, they could be legally prosecuted for this. “The failure of a state to take suitable measures to protect the climate system can be an action contrary to international law,” said the President of the International Court of Justice (IGH), the Japanese Yuji Iwasawa, commissioned by the UN Collection of the expert opinion in the Hague.

If countries take no or only inadequate measures to protect the planet from climate change, the 15 IGH judges believe that they violate international law. The more than 130-page report is not legally binding, but according to international law experts, it can have an impact on climate processes worldwide. It is considered historical.

Small island states with great concerns

In the procedure, small island states and other developing countries asked the highest UN court to fix climate protection as a duty to international law. For these states, it was about survival, representatives of the organization for African, Caribbean and Pacific states claimed in the most extensive procedure before the IGH.

Procedure for reparations can be complicated

The IGH explained that the demands for the reparation of states that emit large amounts of greenhouse gases without doing enough to combat climate change, which could only be decided on this. Such repositions could be, for example, that the resulting damage to the infrastructure of a affected country is remedied if this is still possible. However, the court also made it clear that corresponding procedures could be very complicated.

Order of the UN General Assembly

In 2023, the UN General Assembly commissioned the court to create any legal consequences for states in an expert opinion “that caused significant damage to the climate system and other parts of the environment through its actions and omissions.” Above all, this should be investigated in terms of island development states that are at risk of increasing sea level as a result of global warming.

Large economic states: Paris Agreement is enough

Large economic countries such as China and the USA, which are responsible for the majority of CO2 emissions, reject legal obligations that go beyond existing agreements. For example, they refer to the provisions of the UN climate protection conventions and the Paris climate agreement. Germany also stated that the obligations stipulated there were sufficient.

Initiative of the island state of Vanuatu

Vanuatu had taken the initiative for the climate process in front of the IGH. The island state in the South Pacific is threatened by the downfall because the sea level increases as a result of global warming. This can be observed particularly strongly in the South Pacific.

One of the first small countries that could become uninhabitable is Tuvalu. Australia has therefore already offered to record the population of the South Sea Archiplip.

Almost half of the almost 11,000 residents of the small state between 3,500 and 4,000 kilometers northeast of Australia have already applied for the prospect of the prospect.

According to the Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research in Kiel, sea level has risen by 20 centimeters due to the beginning of industrialization.