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6 days ago
- Politics
- Scroll.in
ICJ delivers an unambiguous order on states' responsibilities to halt climate change
In a much-awaited readout of its advisory opinion on climate change, the president of the International Court of Justice Iwasawa Yuji on July 23 spelt out in crystal-clear terms the legal and customary obligations of states under international law and climate treaties to ensure the planet survives the catastrophic impacts of climate change. The opinion paved the way for states to be held accountable for fossil fuel emissions and the resultant climate harm. The order has been hailed by the Pacific Islands states especially, Vanuatu, which led the global demand for the opinion, as unprecedented and as going above all expectations. The advisory opinion clearly mentioned that failure of states to take measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by continuing fossil fuel production, granting exploration licences or fossil fuel subsidies constituted an internationally wrongful act. States also have an obligation to regulate private actors as a matter of due diligence. In relation to climate damage, the court held that in the event that restitution should prove to be materially impossible, responsible states have an obligation to compensate. Some states argued during the hearing in December that it was difficult to fix responsibility. But the court held that it was scientifically possible to determine the emissions contribution of each state in both current and historical terms. The court also stated that injured states could separately invoke the responsibility of states committing wrongful acts that caused climate harm and seek reparations. Judge Yuji said climate change was more than a legal problem: it concerns an existential problem of 'planetary proportions that imperils all forms of life and the very health of our planet'. A complete solution to this daunting and self- inflicted problem, the court said, required all forms of human and scientific knowledge and human will and wisdom at the individual, social and political level to change habits, comforts and the current way of life. The court expressed the hope that its conclusions would allow the law to inform and guide social and political action to address the climate crisis. Two questions The court had been requested by the United Nations General Assembly to address two critical questions in its advisory opinion, the hearings for which were completed in December 2024 in The Hague. The court first examined the obligations of states to address climate change for current and future generations under international laws including human rights law, the United Nations Charter, the Law of the Sea and climate treaties and agreements. Secondly, it considered the legal consequences that states face if they failed to meet their obligations and caused serious climate harm. The United Nations General Assembly resolution seeking this advisory opinion was the result of a six-year campaign by law students of the University of the South Pacific. The advisory opinion was a transformational shift to seeking climate justice, said Vishal Prasad, the campaign director of Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change. 'Everything we hoped for is there,' he said. 'We are grateful and happy with the outcome.' The court also addressed intergenerational equity by underscoring the need for action to save the planet. It sends a strong message to young people and 'gives us hope, a tool for climate justice, a strong tool to carry on the fight for climate justice', Prasad said. Placing responsibility Some important observations made by the court include placing clear responsibility on polluters and those states causing climate harm and the obligation of such states to pay for damage and restoration for the loss of habitat and biodiversity. The court clarified that states were obliged to adhere to both customary and international laws as well the climate treaties: the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement and other United Nations conventions on biodiversity, desertification as well as human rights and the Law of the Sea. It was not merely enough to prepare Nationally Determined Contributions as obligated by the Paris Agreement that set out ambitions and targets of each state to curb greenhouse gas emissions but also to ensure that all states were collectively moving towards the common goal of curbing emissions. 'Beyond expectations' Ralph Regenvanu, Vanuatu Minister of Climate Change Adaptation, said the opinion was above and beyond his expectations because it directly addressed fossil fuels, reiterating that it was wrong for states to give exploration licences or to subsidise or produce fossil fuels. The key contribution of the advisory opinion was two- fold, said Margaretha Wewerinke-Singh, legal counsel for Vanuatu's case and international lawyer at Blue Ocean Law. She said the court has mentioned the whole spectrum of obligations that applies to the conduct of states that have caused climate change and that states that failed to regulate fossil fuels, and continue with subsidies, are liable. 'When you violate your obligations and commit a wrongful act, you need to stop that and you need to make reparations for the injuries that you have caused,' she said. The implications of this advisory opinion are tremendous, she added. The advisory opinion endorsed the 'polluter pays' principle. 'We have come to the era of accountability and states can be held accountable for current and past emissions, states can be held to account for failing to meet their obligations.' she said. Experts from the Center for International Environmental Law commended the ruling for offering a legal foundation for climate accountability. 'The world's highest court has spoken – reinforcing what frontline communities have long demanded: justice means remedy,' said senior attorney Joie Chowdhury of the centre. The court's decision lays a stronger legal foundation for climate accountability, offering a vital lifeline to frontline communities and nations, with far-reaching consequences for climate litigation, multilateral negotiations, and campaigns across the world. Merely adhering to the climate agreements was not enough the Court held and that states had an obligation to do more and their best to limit climate harm. Added Sebastien Duyck, senior attorney at the Center For International Environmental Law, 'When a court like the ICJ recognises new connections between conduct and legal norms, like the idea that failing to curb fossil fuels-related emissions can violate international legal obligations, it does not stop there. That recognition opens the door for further legal claims.'
Straits Times
22-07-2025
- Business
- Straits Times
Seabed-mining firm faces legal questions over controversial Trump policy
The Metals Company CEO Gerard Barron speaking at the opening of the company's public trading, at Times Square in Manhattan, in 2021. Two months ago, President Donald Trump took an extraordinary step toward issuing permits to mine vast tracts of the ocean floor in international waters where valuable minerals are abundant. It was a boon to The Metals Company, an ambitious startup that had already spent more than a half-billion dollars preparing to become the world's first commercial seabed miner. Within days of Mr Trump's executive order, the company submitted its application to the federal government. As a result, some of the company's international partners are now questioning their relationships with The Metals Company. Mr Trump's order conflicts with a long-standing treaty known as the Law of the Sea, potentially exposing them to legal risks. The issue with The Metals Company's seabed-mining application is that nearly every country in the world, but not the United States, has signed the Law of the Sea treaty. Its language is clear: Mining in areas outside a country's territorial waters before nations agree on how to handle the practice is not just a breach of international law, but an affront to 'the common heritage of mankind'. In May, a Japanese firm that The Metals Company has partnered with in the past to process minerals from seabed-mining test runs, said it was 'carefully discussing the matter with TMC,' citing the importance of doing business with companies 'via a route that has earned international credibility'. In June, the Dutch parliament, noting that The Metals Company would be using a ship belonging to Allseas, a half-Dutch company, voted to request that the Dutch government 'take and support any possible (legal) action against the US and The Metals Company' if they mine in international waters. At this month's meetings of the International Seabed Authority, or ISA, which is a United Nations-affiliated body that administers the Law of the Sea, delegates hotly debated whether to strip The Metals Company and its partners of exploration permits it had obtained through the ISA in recent years and would soon need to extend. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore S'poreans aged 21 to 59 can claim $600 SG60 vouchers from July 22 Singapore Miscalculated grants: Overpayments amounted to $7m for most people, a shortage of $2m to others, says MOH Singapore Changi Airport handles 17.5 million passengers in Q2 2025 Singapore 2 charged over alleged involvement in posting of bail for man who subsequently absconded Singapore Teen charged after allegedly selling vaporisers, advertising e-cigarettes on WhatsApp Life Having a workout partner could be the secret to sticking to your fitness goals Singapore 2,500 turtles seized in India and sent back to S'pore, put down humanely after salmonella detected Singapore Ports and planes: The 2 Singapore firms helping to keep the world moving In an interview on July 18, Gerard Barron, CEO of The Metals Company, dismissed the concerns. 'I see those threats as nothing but wing-flapping,' he said. Mr Barron said that because the United States was the world's most powerful economy, his company's international partners would simply have to deal with the impending reality of commercial seabed mining and adapt their stances on international law. He also said that his company's US permit to start mining in international waters would be issued 'sooner than people expect'. The Metals Company could process its minerals in Indonesia rather than Japan, Mr Barron said, noting that Indonesia and the United States signed a hard-fought trade agreement last week. And that Allseas could relocate out of the Netherlands, a move the company's CEO, Pieter Heerema, alluded to in recent comments to the Dutch press. 'We don't have to, but must be able to consider it,' Mr Heerema said. 'The Netherlands was attractive – now it isn't.' At a recent UN conference in France, Nathan Nagy, a legal adviser to the US State Department made a forceful speech defending his country's stance on seabed mining in international waters, reiterating that the United States has 'never considered' the Law of the Sea to 'reflect customary international law'. Mr Barron said his company opted to apply for a US permit because the ISA had failed for many years to issue the regulations necessary to begin issuing its own extraction permits in international waters. The ISA had pledged to settle those regulations by this year, but is widely expected to miss that deadline. Delegates at the ongoing ISA's talks in Kingston, Jamaica, described feverish, closed-door sessions filled with debate over how to address the Trump administration's decision to start allowing seabed mining in international waters. On July 21, the organisation's council, made up of 36 elected member states, stopped short of punitive action but passed a resolution urging the body's legal and technical committee to investigate 'noncompliance' by its signatories. ISA member states are bound by the Law of the Sea to prevent public and private entities in their countries from doing business with anyone mining without an ISA permit, which is precisely what The Metals Company is aiming to do. 'TMC has been testing the limits of what it can get away with, a bit like a child seeing how far it can go with bad behavior,' said Matthew Gianni, co-founder of the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, who was present at the talks in Kingston. 'The member countries of the ISA have basically sent a shot across the bow, a warning to TMC that going rogue may well result in the loss of its ISA exploration claims,' he said. 'It also sends a signal to other companies that if they go the same route as TMC has, they may also face the same consequences.' The ISA's draft regulations, which already stretch to nearly 200 pages, remained largely unsettled. The process has been stymied by disagreements over environmental regulations, including how much sediment seabed miners would be allowed to put back in the water, as well as how much in royalties miners would owe to countries sponsoring their permits. The ISA's Brazilian secretary-general, Leticia Carvalho, told delegates in a speech that completing the regulations as soon as possible was 'the best tool we have to prevent the chaos that unilateral action could bring.' 'What will prevent the Wild West are the rules,' she said. The Metals Company's ISA-issued exploration permits were obtained through intermediaries in the small South Pacific island nations of Nauru and Tonga. They pertain to areas within a vast stretch of ocean floor about halfway between Mexico and Hawaii, called the Clarion-Clipperton Zone. The seabed there is blanketed with potato-size nodules containing large proportions of manganese and smaller amounts of nickel, cobalt and copper, all of which have growing uses in military equipment, electronics and large-scale industries such as steelmaking. The United States considers those metals critical to national security and has sought new sources of them because China dominates current supply chains. No commercial-scale seabed mining has ever taken place. The technological hurdles are high, and there have been serious concerns about the environmental consequences in the deep sea, a region of the planet that is little understood to science. Anticipating that mining would eventually be allowed, companies like Barron's have invested heavily in developing technologies to mine the ocean floors. This includes ships with huge claws that would extend down to the seabed, as well as autonomous vehicles attached to gargantuan vacuums that would scour the ocean floor. NYTIMES
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GMA Network
11-07-2025
- Business
- GMA Network
Australia pledges P110M worth of drones to PCG
Australia on Friday said it will provide additional drones and uncrewed maritime domain awareness technologies worth P110 million to the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG). Australian Ambassador to the Philippines HK Yu made the announcement during a forum in observance of the Philippines' 2016 arbitral win against China over a dispute in the South China Sea. 'It is my great pleasure to announce today for the first time that over the next couple of years Australia will provide PCG with additional drones and other uncrewed maritime domain awareness technologies worth around P110 million,' Yu said. In October 2024, the Australian government also donated Very High Frequency (VHF) Base radios to the PCG to enhance and modernize its operation in Palawan. The equipment is part of Australia's P328 million civil maritime cooperation with the Philippines, according to the embassy. This cooperation includes vessel remediation, aerial drones, postgraduate scholarships, operational training, and annual Law of the Sea courses. —VAL, GMA Integrated News
Libya Review
26-06-2025
- Business
- Libya Review
European Council Warns Against Unilateral Maritime Agreements in Libya
Libya's maritime agreement with Turkey continues to draw sharp criticism from the European Union, as a draft version of the European Council's latest conclusions labels the 2019 Memorandum of Understanding between the two countries as incompatible with international law. According to the draft text, the Council reaffirms that the Libya-Turkey memorandum 'violates the sovereign rights of third states, does not comply with the Law of the Sea, and cannot have legal consequences for third states.' This language reflects the EU's enduring stance that the maritime deal, which aims to define exclusive economic zones in the Mediterranean, infringes on the rights of neighboring countries, particularly Greece and Cyprus. Beyond the legal dispute, the draft also highlights broader concerns over the ongoing instability in Libya. The European Council links the country's fragile political and security landscape to wider regional implications, including irregular migration flows and threats to European security. The draft further reiterates the EU's support for Libya's sovereignty and unity. It calls for continued backing of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), and urges progress toward a comprehensive political solution based on national ownership, inclusivity, and consensus. The European Council's discussion comes as Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis participates in high-level meetings in Brussels, following a NATO gathering in The Hague. Alongside Libya, other key topics on the EU agenda include the situation in Ukraine, developments in the Middle East, migration policy, and internal European security. The agreement, first signed in 2019, delineates maritime boundaries and has been seen as part of broader Turkish interests in energy exploration. Tags: euGreecelibyaMaritime DealTurkey
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Business Standard
17-06-2025
- Politics
- Business Standard
At sea on ocean goals: India must lead to protect marine health interests
With UN pledges on ocean health remaining voluntary, India must chart its own course to safeguard its maritime interests Shyam Saran Listen to This Article Humanity is terrestrial, but its origins lie deep in the ocean. In 1967, when the world was negotiating the historic Law of the Sea, a Maltese diplomat, Arvid Prado said: 'The dark oceans were the womb of life; from the protecting oceans life emerged. We still bear in our bodies — in our blood, in the salty bitterness of our tears — the marks of this remote past.' And the umbilical cord that ties us to the ocean is the stuff of life itself. The ocean generates half of the planet's oxygen. It absorbs 30 per cent of all carbon
