For Pacific people, climate change is an existential crisis. Those in particularly low-lying nations now see the sea, long their primary source of food, threatening instead to consume them. Those whose topography will protect them from the worst of the waves still face devastating effects like water and food shortages and crushing natural disasters.
In other parts of the world similar climate impacts have prompted climate litigation. Citizens and civil society groups have taken the climate fight to the courts, hoping to force action on the issue under law. In India, for example, litigants halted the development of an airport after it was revealed over 50,000 trees would have to be removed for the build site.
To date, very few similar efforts have been seen in the Pacific. To create more awareness in the Pacific legal community, the UN Environment Programme, the Asian Development Bank and the Supreme Court of Fiji brought together over 120 judges from the Pacific region and farther afield to share experiences and ideas on how the judiciary will play a role in fighting climate change.
Scroll down to see what a variety of Pacific judges have to say on the issues.
“The impacts of climate change really have a drastic effect on the lives of people, particularly in low-lying islands like Kiribati. It’s there right before your eyes every day. I think it’s important for the judiciary to play a role in environmental law and climate change issues because it affects the rights of the people that the judiciary is supposed to serve.”
“If you look back over the centuries there has been wave after wave of different new issues, or new trends, or turns, or difficulty that humans will always come up with. Sadly, in the last couple of centuries a lot of the legal developments and the reactions by judiciary have been just that, reactive. This, climate change, is probably the newest and most critical of these manmade challenges.”
“If you’re going to get forced out of your home then you’re going to have to look at the causes and who is to blame for this stuff. This raises some complicated issues about causation and the science involved in it. So it’s going to be a very challenging area for the judges, for the courts.”
“Women are more likely than men to experience the adverse effects of climate change. Their already existing gender inequality and socio-economic disadvantage is worsened by climate change. However, women should not be viewed simply as victims, but as agents of change. Their voices need to be heard at every level of decision-making on climate change issues.”
“I grew up as a rural person. My parents, my relatives, they live on the land. 80–90 per cent of Papua New Guinea is rural, land-based. With all of these issues coming in we are looking at a catastrophic effect if we don’t do anything. I cannot be a deputy chief justice or a chief justice, let alone a human being, unless the environment for me to live is there. I wish the discussion came a little bit earlier. But better late than never.”ourt of Papua New Guinea
“Having got the courts started, it’s an important thing to move on and get the lawyers capable of presenting cases to the courts in the Pacific. The more we can as judges collaborate, talk to each other and assist each other—and get the lawyers to do the same—the better quality will be any cases that come before the courts in the Pacific nations.”
“The Marshall Islands is a series of very low-lying atolls and with the potential rise in sea level I think we’re looking at some of the problems discussed during this conference, the most daunting of which I believe would be a human displacement problem of climate refugees. If that did not occur, if the sea levels don’t rise to the extent to displace the population, I think there are certainly a lot of economic considerations which the court system may have to deal with.”
“In the Pacific region, it’s a new thing, new concept. We don’t have many [environmental] cases in court. But I can see it coming more now. I think education is the main thing. People are becoming more aware about environmental rights and what is happening with climate change. Our government is very keen. They’re always taking the first steps on climate change in the region.”
