I’ve spent the last week in Nadi, Fiji, meeting with young women from across the Pacific to discuss how the climate crisis is impacting their communities, lands and oceans.
We talked about the impacts of sea level rise on young mothers in Kiribati, the women with disabilities who are left behind when disasters hit in Fiji, and how climate change is increasing women’s risk of violence in Tonga.
I met with young women from seven Pacific Island countries and while their stories were unique, their message was the same – young Pacific women are losing their lives, livelihoods, homes and cultures to a crisis not of their making and they are raising their voice to demand change.
Across the Pacific and the Global South, women and their communities have been sounding the alarm on the climate crisis for decades. They’ve called for action because for them climate change is an existential threat – everything is at stake.
Overnight, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) delivered an advisory opinion that confirmed what these women have been saying all along: that that climate change is a human rights crisis and polluting countries like Australia have a legal obligation to act to protect people and the environment and keep global heating to 1.5 degrees.
The ICJ’s ruling is a landmark global victory, and will usher in a new era of accountability for big polluting countries and companies.
The ruling affirms what frontline communities have been demanding for years: that polluting countries that have contributed the most to the climate crisis stop evading their responsibility and take real action to reduce emissions and support those who are bearing the worst impacts.
What does this mean for Australia?
It’s time to stop tinkering around the edges, and start acting with a level of urgency that frontlines communities desperately need.
That means:
- No new coal, oil and gas projects and urgent phase out fossil fuels – Australia’s emissions reduction targets and action must reflect the “highest possible ambition” and represent a proportionate contribution towards the 1.5°C goal.
- Act or be held accountable – the failure to take action on fossil fuels in line with its obligations under international law could constitute an “internationally wrongful act” and open Australia up to provide restitution or compensation to countries that are harmed by climate change.
- Pay up for climate finance – Australia and other rich, high emitting countries have a legal obligation to provide climate finance to low-income countries in line with the Paris agreement commitment, including the realisation of the 1.5°C goal.
- The era of fossil fuel impunity is over – Australia has a duty to regulate private actors and could be held responsible if it doesn’t “limit the quantity of emissions caused by private actors under its jurisdiction.”
Young people across the Pacific have taken their climate justice demands to the highest court in the world and they have won.
This week I have been meeting with the next generation of climate leaders and I can say with confidence – if Australia and other big polluters don’t act – Pacific women leaders will hold them to account.