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IOL News
21-07-2025
- Politics
- IOL News
World's major courts take growing role in climate fight
Almost 3,000 climate cases have been filed up to the end of 2024, in nearly 60 countries, according to the Grantham Research Institute, using data compiled by the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. Image: ImsoGabriel Stock via Pixabay The world's top court is poised to tell governments what their legal obligations are to tackle global warming, and possibly outline consequences for polluters that cause climate harm to vulnerable countries. Wednesday's highly anticipated advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice comes in the wake of landmark international decisions that experts say together have the potential to significantly shape climate action. How has climate litigation evolved? Andrew Raine, deputy director of the UN Environment Programme's law division, said frustration over the pace of climate action had spurred people, organisations and countries to turn to the courts. "When political systems fall short, the law is increasingly seen as a tool for driving ambition and enforcing commitments that have been made," he told AFP. These have been bolstered by increasingly precise and detailed climate science, including from the UN's IPCC climate expert panel. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. 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While not all have been successful -- and some have tried to slow climate progress -- there have been notable cases in recent years that have pushed states to do more. Urgenda, an environmental organisation in the Netherlands, notched a win at the Dutch Supreme Court in 2019, with justices ordering the government to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by the end of the following year. And in 2021, the German Constitutional Court found that the government's failure to sufficiently cut planet-heating pollution placed an unacceptable burden on future generations. Raine said that litigation was increasingly crossing borders, with 24 cases brought before international or regional courts, tribunals or other bodies. "This marks a turning point and it reflects the transboundary and shared nature of the climate crisis," he said. Why have recent cases been deemed historic? Two in particular have been hailed as watershed moments that will help shape how courts, governments and businesses understand and act on their climate responsibilities. Last year, an advisory opinion by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea said carbon emissions can be considered a marine pollutant and that countries have a legal duty to take measures to reduce their effects on oceans. The tribunal made clear that the work of defining countries' obligations is not limited to the Paris climate agreement or the UN body that runs climate change negotiations. Major polluters have argued that the UN framework is sufficient and against courts taking climate decisions. Another major advisory opinion was issued this month, with the Inter-American Court of Human Rights reaffirming the right to a healthy climate system and acknowledging the rights of nature. But perhaps the court's most profound statement was to place protection against irreversible climate harms on the same level as international prohibitions on genocide and torture, said Cesar Rodriguez-Garavito, Professor of Law and Director of the Climate Law Accelerator at New York University. The court said "massive and serious harm to the climate system through emissions, through deforestation and so on, is absolutely forbidden by international law," he said. In his view this made it the strongest statement yet by any international court on states' duty to avoid causing severe ecological destruction. All eyes are now on the ICJ. What could be the impact? Vanuatu, one of many low-lying islands threatened by sea level rise, has asked the ICJ to give its opinion on states' obligations to reduce emissions. But the potentially more controversial request is what -- if any -- legal consequences there might be for major polluters who cause severe climate damages. "These are questions of global justice," said Rodriguez-Garavito, potentially touching on contentious issues of "reparations for climate harms" to those least responsible for emissions. While advisory opinions like the ICJ are not legally enforceable, Raine said they carry significant weight. "They clarify how international law applies to the climate crisis, and that has ripple effects across national courts, legislative processes and public debates," he said. "It doesn't force states to act, but it shows them where the law stands and where they should be headed." AFP
IOL News
07-07-2025
- General
- IOL News
South Africa's ambitious plan to plant a million trees in one day
The Forestry Department aims to plant one million trees on September 24. Image: ImsoGabriel Stock via Pixabay As part of its National Greening Programme, South Africa's Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) has announced an ambitious plan to plant one million trees on September 24. The initiative not only aims to mitigate climate change, but also create employment and enhance food security through the planting of fruit trees. At the launch of the One Million Trees Campaign at the Pretoria National Botanical Garden on July 7, South Africa's Deputy Minister of Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment, Bernice Swarts, said her department was currently finalising logistics for the 'one million trees' planting day. The DFFE has identified 'safe' spaces where the trees will be planted, where requirements such as water availability, a dedicated person to look after the trees, and security or fencing are in place. Such places will include public institutions such as schools, churches, clinics, Early Childhood Development Centres, and certain Low-Income Housing establishments. The trees will be sourced through a network of approved nurseries, and South Africans will be asked to sponsor trees as soon as the DFFE's online QR system has been set up. The donated trees will be stored at the 11 National Botanical Gardens across the country, and DFFE nurseries, while planting logistics are being finalised. 'We are calling on all South Africans to join hands in greening our country. This is an all of society campaign which calls on collaboration by government departments, municipalities, civil society organisations, Non-Government Organisations, corporates, students and learners, churches and the public at large to plant at least one million trees for the benefit of our country,' Swarts said at the campaign's Pretoria launch event. 'The country has borne the brunt of climate change and the resultant devastation it causes in communities and economies. We have witnessed fires, deadly heatwaves, heavy rains, floods, and prolonged droughts. These events underscore our shared vulnerability, but also our shared responsibility to act, to adapt, and to do so in a way that leaves no one behind,' she added. Swarts also underlined the importance of planting trees that were suitable for a particular area, and said that researchers were working with the department to develop a list of suitable trees in accordance with agro-ecological zones and climatic conditions in each province. The One Million Trees campaign follows President Cyril Ramaphosa's earlier instruction that 10 million trees be planted in the country over five years. Of these 60% should comprise fruit trees and the other 40% should be indigenous. 'I forever mourn when I go to Soweto and I see how we don't have enough trees in that Soweto environment and indeed in many other townships as well. So part of beautifying our cities, part of injecting life in our cities, should be looking at our environment, making it clean, making it attractive,' the President said during an address in March. IOL News
