Maravi

Polluting nations face legal action

Polluting nations face legal action
By Kabanda Chulu in Kitwe
Wed 01 Dec. 2010, 04:01 CAT

VULNERABLE nations can speed up international action on climate change by taking industrialised countries to court, says the Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development.

FIELD lawyer Christoph Schwarte stated that climate-vulnerable developing nations could use international law to break the current deadlock in the intergovernmental negotiations on climate change by taking industrialised nations to court.

“While international judicial organs are unlikely to issue hard hitting judgments, climate change litigation may help to create the political pressure and third-party guidance required to re-invigorate the international negotiations, within or outside the UNFCCC,” Schwarte stated.

Scwarte’s suggestion comes as government officials from around the world gather in Cancun, Mexico for many days of negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change conference that started on Monday.

“A large part of the relevant legal literature suggests that the main polluting nations can be held responsible under international law for the harmful effects of their greenhouse-gas emissions,” Schwarte stated.

“As a result, affected countries may have a substantive right to demand the ending of a certain amount of emissions. In selected cases they also have the procedural means to pursue an inter-state litigation in an international judicial forum such as the International Court of Justice in The Hague.”

Schwarte’s paper outlines a possible legal argument for such a lawsuit and offers some observations on the potential impacts of bringing a case before an international court or tribunal.

“While there are various substantive and procedural legal hurdles, under certain circumstances litigation under public international law will be possible and can become a bargaining chip in the negotiations,” stated Schwarte.

Since the failed Copenhagen summit in 2009, there has been limited progress in the UNFCCC climate negotiations. At the current rate of progress, a new legal framework and ambitious emission reductions look unlikely despite the ongoing global climate talks in Mexico.

As a result, billions of extra tonnes of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases will be released into the atmosphere, and many scientists warn that this means global temperatures could rise by 4 degrees Celsius by the end of the century.

Labels: CLIMATE CHANGE, POLLUTION

posted by MrK @ 3:09 PM