Tiempo Climate Newswatch

The Pacific island nation of Palau is to seek an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on whether countries have a responsibility to ensure that their greenhouse gas emissions do not harm other nations. "The case should be clear," said President Johnson Toribiong. "The ICJ has already confirmed that customary international law obliges States to ensure that activities within their jurisdiction and control respect the environment of other States. Similarly, Article 194(2) of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea provides that States shall take all measures necessary to ensure that activities under their jurisdiction or control do not spread and do not cause damage by pollution to other States. It is time we determine what the international rule of law means in the context of climate change."

Pacific states, Kiribati, Micronesia and Nauru, have called on the United Nations to assist small island nations combat the effects of climate change. They request that the United Nations Secretary-General appoint a Special Representative on Climate and Security to analyse the projected security impacts of climate change and that he assess the capacity of the United Nations system to respond to the likely security impacts of climate change so that vulnerable countries can be assured that the United Nations is up to the task. Nauru's President Marcus Stephen described these two proposals as "the absolute minimum necessary to prepare for the greatest threat to international security of our generation." He also urged Member States to honour commitments made under the climate treaty to ensure further progress on sustainable development goals.

Norway and Australia have proposed that a new international climate framework be finalized by 2015. The proposal, which has been submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change secretariat prior to the talks in Panama this week, charts a negotiating timetable running from the South Africa summit this year to a legally-binding framework that would be adopted in 2015. "A stepwise approach from Durban to 2015 will provide time and space for countries to build confidence and capacity, and ensure a robust outcome over time," according to the submission.

Jennifer Morgan at the World Resources Institute in the United States commented: "It's the first formal proposal with this type of a mandate to lead to a legally-binding instrument. It's a very important proposal – certainly it is a challenging one but it does certainly frame the Durban meeting in a new light." The European Union is reported to be developing a plan to extend the Kyoto Protocol to 2018 on the understanding that a replacement treaty would then be agreed by all nations. The goal of the Australia-Norway proposal would be an agreement covering both developed and developing countries, though the least developed countries would be exempt.

Speaking at a mini-summit on the humanitarian emergency in the Horn of Africa, the President of the United Nations General Assembly, Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, reported that the current session of the Assembly will produce a draft resolution on strengthening humanitarian assistance in the Horn of Africa. "As the world’s pre-eminent forum for international peace and security, it is our collective responsibility to provide moral and financial support to these highly vulnerable populations," he said. "The right to food, life and security are, after all, universal human rights."

At the mini-summit, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on the countries of the region and the international community to take a long-term approach to ending recurrent food shortages. "Addressing underlying risk factors is among the keys to ensuring this crisis does not strike again," he said. "Let us not allow drylands to remain investment deserts. Let us ensure that women and children have access to basic health care and water. Let us work for stability to allow markets to flourish." Noting that programmes in Ethiopia and Kenya have helped ensure that there is no famine despite the worst drought in six decades, Ban said: "This is a profound achievement that can be replicated some day in Somalia. We will see drought again – with increasing frequency. But drought need not become famine."