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Climate-related obligations go beyond territories and present generation: AG tells the Hague
View(s):While Sri Lanka has an obligation to its citizens to protect, preserve and improve the environment for the benefit of the community, it is prevented from fulfilling this to the fullest due to a breach of climate-related undertakings owed to Sri Lanka by other States at global level, Attorney General Parinda Ranasinghe said.
The AG made the remarks while making oral submissions on behalf of Sri Lanka at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. He noted that even under customary international law, States have an obligation to protect the climate system.
Referring to the duty of States to refrain from depriving people of their subsistence, Mr. Ranasinghe stressed that “in a world where there is famine caused by increased droughts, where there is loss of fishermen’s livelihood due to frequent cyclones, and where outdoor labour is impossible in rising temperatures, a community is deprived of its subsistence.” In this sense, the duty to protect the climate system and other parts of the environment goes to the heart of humankind’s subsistence.
Two common threads run through the climate-related obligations whether one applies treaty law, customary law, general principles or judicial decisions under international law, said the AG, adding that these obligations extend beyond national territories and beyond the present generation.
“More importantly, they illustrate the point that several obligations of States with regard to the climate are found beyond the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) and Paris Agreement. Thus, the claim to restrict the opinion of this court to the four corners of these two instruments is erroneous,” he emphasised.
Deputy Solicitor General Dr. Avanti Perera also made submissions, saying Sri Lanka urges the ICJ to recognise reparation as a legal consequence when States breach their climate-related obligations, provided that the causal nexus is established between the breach and the injury.
“Reparation in the form of compensation has been previously awarded by this court,” she said. “However, compensatory reparation should not absolve States from having to fulfill their other financing obligations under climate treaties or their pledges to make voluntary contributions to loss and damage funds.”
She urged the court to clearly define the legal obligations that States have to protect the climate system and other parts of the environment, as well as the legal consequences when those obligations are breached.
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