Vanuatu Leads the Charge for Climate Justice at the UN

Vanuatu has secured United Nations approval to ask the International Court of Justice whether countries can be sued under international law for failing to slow down climate change. The resolution, passed by consensus, reflects widespread frustration over the fact that greenhouse gas emissions are not being reduced quickly enough. The international court’s opinion would not be binding, but it could potentially turn the voluntary pledges that every country has made under the Paris climate accord into legal obligations under a range of existing international statutes. Vanuatu is also among a group of vulnerable island nations pressing for a global fossil fuels nonproliferation treaty.