BY JOHN HOUANIHAU
Pacific Island states should use the International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion (ICJ-AO) to advocate for more ambitious commitments at COP30, robust loss and damage finance, and a rapid end to fossil fuel expansion.
Vanuatu Minister for Climate Change Adaptation, Energy, Environment, Meteorology, Geo-Hazard and Disaster Management, Ralph Regenvanu echoed this during the penal discussion on Understanding the ICJ -AO on Climate Change held at the Aquatic Centre yesterday.
“The upcoming United Nation (UN) General Assembly resolution on the ICJ Opinion would further acknowledge these obligations internationally. It represents a key avenue for translating legal authority into collective action,” said Regenvanu.
He also said that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) Advisory opinion represents a blueprint for structural change.
“So, at the national and regional and international level, these structural changes will turn the advisory opinion into real accountability and action,” he said.
He further said that the ICJ has confirmed that the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment is a human right under international law at the regional level.
“For the Pacific, this opens the door to regional recognition of this right, for example through the Pacific Islands Forum. Embedding this right regionally would give our people a stronger shield against climate harm, and another tool to hold harmful conduct accountable. And at the multilateral level, the ICJ Opinion confirms that climate treaties exist under customary law and are a legal term, ergo omnes, owed to all humanity,” he said.
“The Court situated its opinion against five decades of treaties, and steadily worsening science. It declared climate change to be, and I quote, a quintessentially universal risk, a danger that binds us all. This makes NDCs not just voluntary pledges but legal benchmarks,” said Regenvanu.
