Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Does The Guardian want military invasions into countries that cannot reduce carbon emissions? Author Jojo Metha laments that the Paris Agreement has no enforcement clause – but she is reluctant to describe exactly how future agreements might be enforced and what the world would do to replace lost energy production.
To stop the climate catastrophe, make ecocide an international crime. It’s the only way
Jojo Mehta and Julia Jackson
Wed 24 Feb 2021 18:16 AEDT
A ban on ecocide would hold governments and companies accountable for negligence in the environment. We can hardly wait
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The Paris Agreement fails. However, there is new hope for the preservation of a liveable planet: The growing global campaign to criminalize ecocide can address the root causes of the climate crisis and protect our planet – the common home of all humanity and indeed all life on earth.
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The science is clear: Without drastic measures to limit the temperature rise below 1.5 ° C, the earth and all life on it, including all humans, will be devastating.
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Currently, much of humanity feels hopeless, but the establishment of ecocide as a crime offers people something to leave behind. The passage of laws against ecocide, as is being considered in a growing number of jurisdictions, offers one way to address the shortcomings of the Paris Agreement. While Paris lacks ambition, transparency and accountability, the criminalization of ecocide would be an enforceable deterrent. The ecocide ban would also address a major cause of global climate change: the widespread destruction of nature which, in addition to increasing greenhouse gas emissions, has devastating effects on global health, food security and water security, as well as sustainable development – to name a few .
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Conviction of ecocide would require the willful disregard of the consequences of actions such as deforestation, ruthless drilling and mining. This threshold implies a number of world and corporate leaders who, among other things, are clearing the basins of the Amazon and the Congo, ruthlessly drilling in the Arctic and the Niger Delta or, among other things, allowing unsustainable palm oil plantations in Southeast Asia.
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/feb/24/climate-crisis-ecocide-international-crime
According to her biography, the author Jojo Metha is an Oxford trained lawyer based in the Netherlands.
The Netherlands is heavily dependent on Russian gas for heating in winter. Thanks to a fracking ban, hostility towards nuclear energy and the unexpectedly rapid depletion of gas fields in the North Sea, domestic energy production in the Netherlands is falling sharply. Imported Russian gas, produced by intensive drilling in the Siberian Arctic, keeps Dutch homes warm in winter and helps keep the lights on.
After what I saw from a visit to the Netherlands, they might talk about the conversation, but they like their comfort – Dutch heating is usually quite high in winter. So good luck convincing the Dutch that they must start living like poor people for the sake of the planet.
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