On the hottest day of the year so far, Obama issued a rallying cry for climate change activists and litigators across the world. All good. Maybe we’re finally moving on the international climate change debate. But let’s not run before we can walk.
Climate change was not given much air time by either candidate in the most recent electoral race, as I said in my previous blog. Yesterday morning, the US President gave the clearest indication yet that climate change is one of the key issues in his final presidential term. What this shows is that this is an issue that is personal for Obama. In their second term of office, US Presidents traditionally have a bit of freedom to take a more personal approach to policy they put through. Gun control has always been up there for Obama which is fantastic. But now we’ve got climate change in the mix too.
But if America take a more active role in the international climate change debate we need to make them feel welcome.
There are many who are keen to bring litigious action against emitting countries, but we need to be wary of this. Almost every country in the world is going to have some level of adaptation to make as a result of climate change. The Maldives has very publicly begun this adaptation process and has also put a valuation on it. America, and other countries too, must tread a careful line. There is a future not completely unforeseeable in which countries are able to litigate against one another over the damage that is caused by historic greenhouse gas emissions.
From a legal perspective this is a concept fraught with difficulties. For instance:
- There’s no specific international authority with the mandate to impose any punishment on one country on behalf of another for climate change.
- There’s no internationally agreed legislation that would allow such a claim to be brought before this hypothetical tribunal.
- There’s no valuation method of adaptation that is not riddled with assumptions and presumptions.
But this is by no means an issue we should bring up now. For the time being, we need to welcome America into the international debate. The blame game is an issue for another time.