Pacific islands submit court proposal for recognition of ecocide as a crime
Pacific islands submit court proposal for recognition of ecocide as a crime
The Facts
On Monday, Vanuatu, Fiji, and Samoa presented a court proposal to the International Criminal Court (ICC), requesting the classification of environmental destruction, or ecocide, as a crime alongside genocide and war crimes.
According to the proposal, ecocide is described as "unlawful or wanton acts, committed with knowledge that those acts have a substantial likelihood of causing severe and/or widespread or long-term damage to the environment."
The Spin
Ecocide—nature destruction—should be a global crime. Revising the Rome Statute of the ICC would criminalize environmental devastation, the fourth most lucrative unlawful activity in the world, which costs $258B annually. It would enable the Paris Agreement to force nations to reduce emissions. A global climate emergency requires us to modify the laws; existing regulations will not save the climate.
