The article in the url below suggests a meaningful step to making progress on climate change, and reinforces the sense that the vehicle to achieving this progress will increasingly be the courts (see Strategic CSR - Danone):
"A UN resolution was adopted [in March] that should make it easier to hold polluting countries legally accountable for failing to tackle the climate emergency, in a vote which was hailed as a historic victory for climate justice."
What makes this decision different, the article suggests, is that it helps define the responsibilities that state actors have to prevent climate change:
"The UN general assembly adopted by consensus the resolution spearheaded by Vanuatu, a tiny Pacific island nation vulnerable to extreme climate effects, and youth activists to secure a legal opinion from the international court of justice (ICJ) to clarify states' obligations to tackle the climate crisis – and specify any consequences countries should face for inaction."
As made clear in the reaction to the decision, it is those countries who had little to no role in producing the carbon that is now saturating our climate (and also did not see any of the economic benefits that it allowed) who will face some of the worst results of that pollution:
"'We are just ecstatic that the world has listened to the Pacific youth,' said Cynthia Houniuhi, president of Pacific Island students fighting climate change (PISFCC). 'Through no fault of our own, we are living with devastating tropical cyclones, flooding, biodiversity loss and sea level rise. We have contributed the least to the global emissions that are drowning our land.'"
The advantage of the resolution, from the perspective of its advocates, is that it helps lay out a legal process for determining culpability:
"The resolution, which was co-sponsored by more than 120 countries including the UK, but not the US, will help establish a legal litmus test of sorts for the global climate justice movement seeking to hold countries to account for climate failures in the courts. … In essence, the ICJ advisory will help establish whether there is legal obligation for countries to do what they have committed to in non-binding treaties such as the 2015 Paris climate accord, and whether failure to do so can be challenged through litigation."
But, as with most collective action taken in the name of combatting climate change, enforcement will be the defining factor as to whether this moves the needle, at all, and also the most challenging aspect of the decision to implement:
"While the opinion from the world's highest court will not be binding in domestic courts, establishing international legal rules can be influential on judges and governments. It also represents the first attempt to establish climate action obligations under international law, which advocates hope will strengthen climate-related litigation by helping vulnerable states and advocates hold countries accountable for their action and inaction."
As with any action that is perceived to be unfair, or even illegal, it is not the action itself that determines culpability, but the attempt to hold the actor to account by others that matters. In the U.S., for example, a law can be passed at a lower level, and implemented and enforced for years (even decades), but it is only when someone takes the time to sue that the law itself can be challenged and might be determined unconstitutional. It is always our willingness to hold others to account, in reality, that determines the behavior that is sanctioned or prohibited by society:
"The resolution emerged out of mounting frustration at the mismatch between the global community's rhetoric and action on climate change, amid escalating losses for countries such as Vanuatu, which face an existential threat due to sea-level rise. The frustration spurned a social movement led by Vanuatu law students turned youth activists, and work on the resolution was led by Indigenous lawyers in the Pacific."
Take care
David
David Chandler
© Sage Publications, 2023
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United Nations adopts landmark resolution on climate justice
By Nina Lakhani
March 29, 2023
The Guardian
