Hasmukh Chand posted: " Early this year, the Parliament of Vanuatu declared a 'climate emergency' in an effort to highlight the need for strong and rapid actions to address climate change. As a low-lying tropical island, Vanuatu is one of the many countries that are most at" Conservation, Environment, Climate Change and Sustainable Development
Early this year, the Parliament of Vanuatu declared a 'climate emergency' in an effort to highlight the need for strong and rapid actions to address climate change. As a low-lying tropical island, Vanuatu is one of the many countries that are most at risk from the impacts of climate change. Repeated disasters such as storm surges, cyclones, rising sea-levels, and heat waves have a magnified effect on the country. Wide-spread poverty makes it harder for people to bounce back. For countries like Vanuatu, international efforts to limit average global temperature rise to 1.50C 'safe threshold' is already too late.
Within the last decade, the situation in Vanuatu has gotten worse. Cyclone Pam for example, which made landfall in Vanuatu in 2015 caused economic damage equivalent to 65% of the country's GDP. Cyclone Pam also killed 11 people, damaged 17,000 buildings and caused the internal displacement of an estimated 65,000 people. Five years later, Vanuatu was struck by Cyclone Harold, another Category 5 cyclone. Given that a large proportion of Vanuatu's economy is built on agriculture and tourism (both of which are at risk from climate impacts), their ability to bounce back after disasters is severely limited.
Mechanisms designed to support vulnerable countries such as the Green Climate Fund have proved unhelpful. Established at COP16 in 2010, the Fund aimed to provide $100 billion in support by 2020 to developing countries' transition to a low carbon economy. However, the Fund has fallen short thus far and there are claims that many countries, such as those in Africa have missed out. As disasters surge in frequency and intensity and a global pandemic exhausts already limited resources, the cost of climate adaptation continues to climb for Vanuatu.
Sadly, rather than increasing compensation under the 'loss and damage' mechanism, many rich nations such as the United States and Australia still continue to drag their feet. Aside from the transfer of funds, there are other options available to support vulnerable countries such as wiping of foreign debt and even providing low interest loans for climate adaptation projects. The lack of financial support could prove detrimental to wealthy countries in the long term.
Largely, this is due to the fact that the number of people displaced by climate related disasters is expected to increase. According to one estimate by the World Bank, the number of climate refugees could reach 140 million people by 2050. The movement of such a large number of people has the potential to fuel tensions across ethnic, cultural, racial and religious divides, which could spill into civil unrest and the rise of violent militias and terrorists.
Further, the displacement of people from their homeland could have deeper consequences such as a loss of cultural and traditional identity and could challenge international laws and norms related to nationhood (or in the case of climate refugees - statelessness).
In an effort to break the many years of inaction on climate change and the associated compensation scheme, Vanuatu has taken the extraordinary step of bringing the issue before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) - the principle, judicial arm of the United Nations. The ICJ can hear two types of cases; contentious and advisory opinions. Contentious cases often involve legal disputes between two countries. As Vanuatu isn't taking any one particular country to the ICJ, their way forward lies down the advisory opinion route.
If Vanuatu is successful, this would be the first time the ICJ will examine a legal matter related to climate change since it was established. However, there are some hurdles that need to be navigated before Vanuatu's case can get to the ICJ. First is the exact framing of the legal question that Vanuatu seeks an advisory opinion on. Once the question has been framed, it will need to be introduced to the United Nations General Assembly where Vanuatu will need to win 97 or more votes from member countries. From there, the matter will be referred to the ICJ for deliberation. As part of the process, the ICJ may invite submissions from member countries and convene a small panel of subject matter experts to provide evidence.
It should be noted that any subsequent advisory opinion issued by the ICJ is non-binding. However, the opinion could serve as an authoritative statement which can have significant ramifications when it comes to international laws related to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
While this legal process could set a new precedent and place greater scrutiny and emphasis on the international community to do more, it does not change the fact that the people of Vanuatu are already suffering from the impacts of climate change. A situation which will only get worse as the concentration of greenhouse gases increases. Regardless, the Vanuatu climate case is definitely one worthy of support as it gains momentum.
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