Prime Minister Gaston Browne is in Hamburg, Germany, for a crucial meeting of
the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) which is to hear a
submission, co-sponsored by Antigua and Barbuda and Tuvalu, seeking damages
for small island states affected by natural and other disasters caused by climate
change. The first session opens today, September 11, in Hamburg.
Prime Minister Browne will address the Tribunal at the opening session, to be
followed by the Prime Minister of Tuvalu, Kausea Natano.
“It is no exaggeration to speak of existential threats when some of these nations
may vanish in the foreseeable future because of rising sea levels.
The scientific evidence leaves no doubt that this situation has arisen because of the
failure of major polluters to effectively mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.
This inaction, this failure of political will, has brought humankind to a perilous
juncture with catastrophic consequences.
“It is because of this reality that COSIS has brought this vital matter before you,”
PM Browne noted in a prepared statement.
Two years ago, in the margins of the COP 26 meeting in Glasgow, the two small
island states in two different parts of the world, decided to form an inter-
governmental organization that would use the international legal system to seek
justice for the considerable impact of Climate Change on their countries.
“The Prime Ministers of Antigua and Barbuda in the Caribbean, and Tuvalu in the
Pacific, frustrated by the lip service being paid by the world’s major contributors to
Climate Change, and the broken promises of every previous COP meeting, decided
that they would seek an Advisory Opinion from the International Tribunal of the
Law of the Sea (ITLOS),” Antigua and Barbuda’s Ambassador to the United States
and the OAS, Sir Ronald Sanders stated.
He was at the time speaking on the topic “The Urgency of COSIS Quest for
Climate Justice Through ITLOS,” during which he sought to explain why several
small states have approached ITLOS for an Advisory Opinion at a High-Level
Dialogue on Climate Policy and other key issues in the Western Hemisphere,
organized by the Antigua and Barbuda Embassy in Washington, DC, and Global
Americans.
Consequently, Antigua and Barbuda and Tuvalu launched the Commission of
Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law (COSIS).
They were subsequently joined by several other small states, including the
Bahamas, St Lucia, St Kitts-Nevis, and St Vincent and the Grenadines in the
Caribbean and by Vanuatu, Palau, and Niue.
ITLOS has agreed to a full hearing of the case that small island states are
advancing.
