Can ICJ deliver climate justice to Global South?

After the battle at the 29th Conference of the Parties (COP29) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague has now become the battleground for the developing and the developed worlds to face off on the climate issue.

- Somit Dasgupta

The ICJ is hearing on this over December 2-13, and the focus would be on determining the obligation of developed-world States with respect to the climate crisis and the legal consequences of these obligations.

The origin of this case before the ICJ lies with a youth group from Vanuatu, called the Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change. This organisation had taken up the matter with the government of Vanuatu, which, in turn, discussed it with a core group of countries and made a reference to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in 2021; 132 countries in the UNGA co-sponsored the resolution, and the matter was referred to the ICJ in April 2023.

The resolution relied upon other documents to bolster its case, for example, the UN Charter, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and of course, the Paris Agreement.

This climate crisis case is the biggest such before the ICJ, where there are 91 written statements and 62 written comments on the statements; 97 States and 11 international organisations (including the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, World Health Organisation and the European Union) are participating in the proceedings.