Climate change negatively impacts the world in innumerable ways. Most of the climate change-induced extreme weather events and disasters are a result of anthropogenic activities, especially those of the wealthier nations.
Therefore, many poorer nations argue that the richer countries should pay for the damage they caused to the climate. The poorer nations also claim that they are the "worst-hit" by the effects of climate change.
At the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference held in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, a historic agreement on a "loss and damage" fund was secured, in order to help countries hit by climate-induced disasters. For a long time, poor and developing countries, including India, had been demanding climate finance to deal with loss and damage.
A tiny Pacific island nation has made a move that may make countries failing to slow down climate change answerable for their actions. The country, Vanuatu, is located in Oceania, has a population of 300,000, and is a disaster-prone island nation.
On Wednesday, March 29, Vanuatu secured the approval of the United Nations (UN) to ask the International Court of Justice, the world's highest court, if countries can be sued under international law for failing to slow down climate change, the New York Times (NYT) reported.
None of the 193 member states of the UN requested a vote, and the measure passed by consensus.
Greenhouse gas emissions are warming the Earth, and have the most devastating impact on the world's poorest nations.
According to a NYT report, António Guterres, the secretary general of the UN, said the move "would assist the General Assembly, the U.N. and member states to take the bolder and stronger climate action that our world so desperately needs."
The world's nations, with this resolution, are asking the Hague-based International Court of Justice to issue an opinion on whether governments have "legal obligations" to protect people from climate hazards, and whether failure to meet those obligations could bring "legal consequences", the report said.
The opinion of the world's highest court could potentially turn the voluntary pledges made by every country under the Paris Agreement into legal obligations.
Last year, Vanuatu took up the measure, and other Pacific island nations joined in.
Vanuatu is considered a vulnerable island nation because it is a low-lying island, and is affected by rising sea levels, which have made water supplies salty, and cyclones and warm ocean waters, which have destroyed coral reefs. Tuna fish, Vanuatu's most valuable commodity, are moving from the nation's territorial water because of ocean warming.