Dubai, CMC: Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne welcomed the agreement at the start of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 28) regarding approving the long-awaited loss and damage fund to pay for damage from climate-driven storms and drought.
But he is cautioning against developed countries, as they have done in the past, not living up to the pledges, hinting at the possibility of legal action being taken to force them to do so.
“At this point, you have to remain optimistic. We have fought hard to capitalize on this loss and damage fund, hoping it will be operationalized in 2024. We have to give them a chance to meet their pledges.
“This is one of the reasons we are pursuing this parallel pathway so that if they continue to make pledges and they don’t satisfy them, then we will take the issues to the various courts to hold these large polluters responsible,” Browne said.
Earlier this year, the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) held “oral proceedings” on issuing an Advisory Opinion on the obligations of states to reduce, prevent, or control the harmful effects of climate change.
The request for an Advisory Opinion was submitted by the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law (COSIS), of which Prime Minister Browne is a founder and Co-Chair.
Browne said that a judgment in that matter is due “next year, probably by April or so (and) we anticipate we will get a favorable outcome and on that basis, if the large polluters continue …we will have every right to take them to court to seek legal redress”.
Loss and damage refer to the impacts many countries suffer from climate-related weather events. While funding has been provided to help countries adapt to rising temperatures and aid their efforts to rein in their emissions, more money has yet to be forthcoming to help with the destruction caused by storms and droughts.
Former senior Grenada government minister Simon Stiell, the UNFCCC Executive Secretary, said the approval of the loss and damage fund “gives this UN climate conference a running start.
Ll governments and negotiators must use this momentum to deliver ambitious outcomes here in Dubai,” he added.
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