A campaign led by Vanuatu has called on the new Labor government in Australia to prove its commitment to climate action and support Pacific countries by pushing for a change in International law to recognise climate change harm.
In a letter, leading Pacific and Australian NGOs urged the country’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese to support Vanuatu’s campaign for the international court of justice to issue an advisory opinion on the question of climate change.
In the letter, groups including 350 Pacific, Amnesty International Australia, Oxfam Pacific and the Pacific Islands Climate Action Network said that the demands present a great opportunity for the Australian government to demonstrate its willingness to listen to Pacific island voices and to prove that it is prepared to act on the existential threat of the climate crisis.
Read also: China announces ban on industrial projects to tackle climate change
The groups said, “We warmly welcome Foreign Minister [Penny] Wong’s comments announcing a new era in Australian engagement in the Pacific and Australia’s intention to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Pacific family in responding to the climate crisis,”
Continuing in the letter, they said “We ask that you affirm Australia’s support for the initiative at the Pacific Islands Forum leaders meeting and vote in favour of the resolution at the United Nations general assembly.”
According to reports, Vanuatu is further seeking to get the ICJ, the world’s highest court, to issue an advisory opinion on the climate crisis. If the campaign is successful, this would be the first authoritative statement on climate change issued by the court and could have huge implications for climate change mitigation, the setting of domestic law, and international, regional and domestic disputes on climate harm.
Reports further showed that the calls for Australia to prove its stated commitments on climate change by backing Vanuatu were echoed by Ralph Regenvanu, the country’s opposition leader, who as foreign minister in 2019, was one of the architects of the ICJ campaign.
Regenvanu was quoted as saying that a key test for the Albanese government would come at the Pacific Islands Forum meeting next month, as Pacific countries discuss whether to endorse the question put forward by Vanuatu.
“I mean, the framing of the question is the really key point that everyone’s interested in,” Regenvanu said. “There is a concern with this obviously testing the new climate credentials of the Australian government … on the question [of] what they will be able to agree to.”
He maintained that Pacific countries are at the forefront of the climate crisis, suffering from catastrophic cyclones, king tides, increasing salinity in water tables, droughts and the loss of low-lying islands to sea-level rise.
Recall that the 2021 IPCC report had found that global heating above 1.5C would be “catastrophic” for Pacific island nations and could lead to the loss of entire countries due to sea-level rise within the century.
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
