What is the agreement between two recent disasters: the roof of a business premises in Winterswijk that collapsed in June, wonderfully without victims, and the train disaster in southern Germany at the end of July, with three dead and 41 injured? The events have a common denominator: climate change. The accident in Germany will be – most likely – Due to a landslideas a result of heavy rainfall, which in turn is a result of global warming. The bad weather in Winterswijk followed on two days of extreme heat. It led to great damage: flooded streets and fallen trees that ended up on houses, roads and the track.
Messages about the consequences of global warming are becoming more and more rehearsing – and at the same time increasingly alarming. They show how great the human and material damage can be. This year is the average temperature of the Mediterranean Sea Higher than ever measured earlier in June. That warm seawater threatens ecosystems under water and is a driver of extreme weather on land. Moreover, heat waves at sea take longer than on land, because water cools more slowly than air.
Or take Turkey, where so many natural fires never occurred so early in the year, and so close to populated area. In the southeast of that country, a hitter record of 50.5 degrees was measured. And then the German border region: at the beginning of July there were hailstones as big as tennis ballsafter days of heat with the peak as the hitter record of 40.7 degrees in the Hürtgenwald.
Is it getting used to that these events hardly make any more alarm bells ring? Have citizens Murw been beaten, due to the absolute action by politicians to work on a livable planet? Can the sitting governments with actual power really don’t care what world they leave for their descendants?
Because that is striking: climate goals are weakened. For example, the EU announced at the beginning of July that co2-Reduction can also be achieved outside Europe through so -called Carbon Credits. In the Netherlands, previously used climate policy, such as green industrial policy, is quietly reversed. It even leads to the involved citizens turning away. Young people, who were previously more delivered about the climate, made less sustainable choices this year than a year earlier.
Yet, in the midst of so many gloomy messages, there are also bright spots. On July 23, the International Court of Appeal published historical advice. Fifteen judges unanimously ruled that countries under international law are obliged to tackle climate change and that citizens are entitled to a clean, healthy and sustainable living environment. According to the Court of Appeal, this also applies to countries that have not signed the Paris or other climate agreements agreement.
These obligations are about limiting emissions (mitigation), adapting to changing circumstances (adaptation), preventing serious damage to people and nature, and the damage that has already been caused where possible. The advice is not binding, but lawyers expect it to be given a lot of weight, both legal and politics, because the International Court of Appeal is the highest court of the UN – so that it is automatically recognized by all 193 members.
Interestingly, they were young people who got this case rolling. Students from the small island state Vanuatu, which is seriously threatened by rising sea level and other consequences of climate change, came up with the idea of requesting the International Court of Appeal on the application of international law in climate change in 2019. The perspective of those young people, their future and that of future generations, was explicitly included in the advice six years later.
Governments worldwide should take an example of this. The facts about climate change are known. It takes place and is for the time being irreversible. Anyone who still does not want to acknowledge the importance of the long term can really no longer say with good decency to serve the public interest. Because that is the quality of life in our world. Whatever political ideology a politician adheres to.
Despite the repetitive nature of this call, its meaning remains. Everyone with some form of power or influence: performs. Don’t let yourself be beaten when you think you don’t have that influence – see also the victory that the Vanuatuan students group managed to reach. Climate change damage will only increase. In the long term it will meet us all.