THE UNITED NATIONS, United States: The UN General Assembly on Wednesday will weigh a draft resolution underlining states’ obligations to combat climate change, a long-awaited move that has been scaled back under pressure from major greenhouse gas emitters.
In 2024, the small Pacific island nation of Vanuatu spearheaded the General Assembly’s request for an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the responsibility of states to fulfill their climate commitments.
The world’s top court last year ruled that states were obliged to tackle climate change under international law, and failing to do so would pave the way for “reparations” to vulnerable countries.
The decision exceeded climate advocates’ expectations, and Vanuatu in January proposed a new draft resolution to implement the ICJ ruling, which is non-binding but can be drawn on by courts around the world.
“For Vanuatu and for many climate-vulnerable states, this is ultimately about survival, but it is also about something wider: whether multilateralism can still respond to reality with unity,” said Ralph Regenvanu, Vanuatu’s climate minister and a proponent of the cause for several years.
