Local Marine Advocate Calls for an Ocean Climate Agenda for Montserrat
Following the historic victory of the Small Island States in the UN Climate Case, local marine advocate, Veta Wade, is calling for an ocean climate agenda for Montserrat and the other UK Overseas Territories.
Wade says Montserrat is the most vulnerable Overseas territory with specific ocean climate needs.
She also talks about the importance of funding programs in fisheries.
Veta Wade.
The case was brought in September last year by nine small countries and territories disproportionately affected by climate change, including Antigua and Barbuda.
The UNCLOS treaty binds countries to prevent pollution of the oceans, defining pollution as the introduction of “substances or energy into the marine environment” that harms marine life, but it does not spell out carbon emissions as a specific pollutant, which the plaintiffs had argued should qualify.
Finding that carbon emissions can be considered a sea pollutant, the court said countries had an obligation to take measures to mitigate their effects on oceans.
The countries that brought the case called the court decision “historic”, and experts said it could be influential in shaping the scope of future climate litigation involving greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.