UN climate justice success should encourage small states to act together

BySirRonaldSanders

(The writer is Antigua and Barbuda’s Ambassador to the United States and the Organization of American States. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies at the University of London and Massey College in the University of Toronto. The views expressed are entirely hisown)

Effortsbysmallstatesto seek justice for damage and existential threats to their countries, caused by the w o r l d ’ s m a j o r environmental polluters, moved a step further at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on March29.

By consensus, the UNGAadopted a resolution seeking an International Court of Justice (ICJ) advisory opinion on climate change.

The resolution asks the ICJ to clarify states’ obligations regarding climate change, including their human rights obligations to reduce greenhousegasemissions.It also asks the court for guidance on questions of accountability for “states that have caused significant harm to the climate,” and to smallislandstates.

The adoption of the resolution demonstrates the soft power of developing states when they act collectively in international fora. While the resolution was proposed by the Pacific Island ofVanuatu which did remarkable diplomatic work to build the consensus that eventually led to UN GA adoption, 18 other countries formed a core group in advancing it. Antigua and Barbuda was the only Caribbean country in the coregroup.

By the time of the UNGA’S adoption of the Resolution the core group had secured co-sponsorship bymorethan130states.

Antigua and Barbuda is also a co-founder of another UN registered Commission which is utilizing the international legal system and its institutions to seek climatejustice. Thisbodyis the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law (COSIS) which is seeking an advisory opinion from the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea(ITLOS).

Unlike the Vanuatu initiative, which will now have to await formalities from the ICJ about the procedures for the submission of memoranda and a date for hearings, COSIS has already received confirmation from ITLOS for a first hearing on September 12 in Hamburg, Germany

Vanuatu is one of the six core members of COSIS which is co-chaired by the Prime Ministers of Antigua and Barbuda and Tuvalu, Gaston Browne and Kausea Natano, both of whom will attend the ITLOS hearing in Hamburg.

These efforts by small island states to use the international legal system forclimatejusticearisefrom thefailureofmeetingsofthe UN Conference of the Parties (COP), which have producedlittleornobenefits for them. Small Island States are the greatest victims of climate change and global warming, although they collectively contribute less than 0.1 per cent of Global Green House Gasemissions-CO2.

The latest UN report is clear that human activity is responsible for virtually all global heating over the last 200 years; the rate of temperature rise in the last halfcenturyisthehighestin 2 , 0 0 0 y e a r s ; a n d concentrations of carbon dioxideareattheirhighestin atleast2millionyears.

Thirteen countries are currently responsible for 68 per cent of the world’s CO2 emissions Of the 13 countries,4ofthem–China, the United States of America,IndiaandRussia–accountfor55percent.

Much irreversible damage has already been done to many countries and to millions of people. The planet Earth – our one homeland – has also been woundedwithconsequences for all. Communities in many countries have been displaced by extreme weatherevents.

InAntigua and Barbuda, all the inhabitants of Barbuda were dislocated in

2017 by Hurricane Irma.

Similarly, in 2019, HurricaneDoriandecimated the Abacos Islands, in The Bahamas, dislodging the entire community Effectively, these persons were“Climaterefugees”–a classification which has not yet been accepted in international law or in internationalprovisions.

E c o n o m i e s o f developingstates,especially small island states, are repeatedly set back by extreme weather events. All of these small economies have incurred burdensome debt to rebuild destroyed countries and to try to build resilientlyforthefuture.

Current global financial flows for adaptation, including from public and private finance sources, are insufficient and constrain implementation of adaptation options in developingcountries.

A World Bank report recentlyrevealedthat“richer c o u n t r i e s , w h i c h significantly expanded their economies over the last decades, were the largest contributors of CO2 emissions,whilesmallstates are the most affected and face the most significant costsofadaptation.” While the polluting nations get richer, the suffering nations get poorer The injustice cannot be more blatantly obvious.

T h e p l e a f o r compensation for loss and damage by small countries was only reluctantly considered at COP27 and appearstohavebeenpushed offintoacommitteetomake recommendations to COP28 that might amount to little. Thesenseofhopelessnessin small states is rising even as temperaturesandthelevelof thesearise.

In nine months, world leaderswillgatheratCOP28 in Dubai. The leaders of the mostpowerfulnations–and thebiggestpolluters-should go to Dubai to deliver climate justice to those countries caught in the vortexofcrisesnoneofthem caused; they should be prepared to compensate those,thattheyhaveharmed most,forlossanddamage.

They should also deliver o n t h e f i n a n c i a l commitments made at COP meetings in Copenhagen, Paris and Glasgow But thereisnosignthatthiswill happen. Hencetheresortby small island states to seek redress in the international legalsystem.

The arbitrations and the judgements of ITLOS and the ICJ are not binding on states, buttheycarrylegal authority and moral weight that cannot be ignored. Favourableopinions fromeachoreitherof them, showing that international law is not on the side of the polluters, would be a boost to the negotiatingstrengthofsmall statesatCOP28.

Hopefully,theconsensus resolutionbytheUNGAthat resulted from developing states working together will emboldenthemtodomoreto advancetheirjointinterests. Responses and previous c o m m e n t a r i e s : www.sirronaldsanders.com