Zoe Nay is a PhD candidate at the Melbourne Law School and a research fellow with the Melbourne Climate Futures Research Center at the University of Melbourne. Her research looks at rising sea levels and climate change law.

“In 2019, you had the Pacific Islands Youth Fighting Climate Change. They formed a coalition, it was all law students all across the Pacific,” Nay said. “They brought a campaign to the Vanuatu government seeking to reinvigorate this effort to have an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice. And that’s where this whole campaign really started off.”

The ICJ has addressed various environmental issues in the past, but this is the first time the global problem of climate change has come before the Court.

These cases will set precedents for future legal actions as governments, environmental groups and other businesses and organizations consider any rulings and their impacts. And it’s hard to predict what these rulings will come to mean, as enforcement will be extremely difficult to enact.

Jackie Smith, a sociologist at the University of Pittsburgh, offered a different take.

“Any enforcement requires power,” Smith points out. “That’s what movements are doing. First you have to be able to monitor performance and have access to the information that you need to monitor governments and other powerful actors.”

But there are reasons to remain optimistic — Smith went on to explain that “if you want to see a law enforced, you need to make sure that you’re attending hearings and following through the executive branch to see what’s going on.”

This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood. Mend Mariwany is the executive producer of The Conversation Weekly. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl.

You can find us on Twitter @TC_Audio, on Instagram at theconversationdotcom or via email. You can also subscribe to The Conversation’s free daily email here.

Listen to The Conversation Weekly via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our RSS feed or find out how else to listen here.

This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. The Conversation is trustworthy news from experts, from an independent nonprofit. Try our free newsletters.

Read more:
Children’s climate change case at the European Court of Human Rights: what’s at stake?

These kids and young adults want their day in court on climate change

Jackie Smith is a co-coordinator of the Pittsburgh Human Rights City Alliance and a member of the steering committee of the (bi-national) Human Rights Cities Alliance.

Niak Sian Koh receives funding from the Swedish Research Council (Formas), project no. 2019-01078, and is a board member of End Ecocide Sweden.