Ralph Regenvanu, minister of climate change for the Pacific island nation, says step taken on ‘behalf of everybody’
Vanuatu is working on securing a UN vote to turn a landmark ruling on the climate crisis by the international court of justice (ICJ) into concrete political action that will fight the influence of the fossil-fuel industry and protect the globe from environmental catastrophe.
In an effort spearheaded by the tiny Pacific island nation, the ICJ issued a rare unanimous advisory opinion in July, which clarified that all states are required under international law to protect the climate, prevent further harms and have a duty to cooperate.
That legal duty to tackle the climate crisis extends far beyond the 2015 Paris agreement, which Donald Trump withdrew the US from on his first day back in office, and any breach of this duty leaves states open to claims of reparations including compensation, the court found.
“We are on the frontline in the Pacific, but no country, not even the US, is insulated from climate change, and we’re doing this on behalf of everybody,” said Ralph Regenvanu, Vanuatu’s minister of climate change.
