Biden and Trump Agree on One Thing: Zero Accountability
While the Biden administration claims to protect the so-called “rules based international order,” it has a contentious relationship with the bodies which decide who breaks them. In January, the ICJ found it plausible that Israel could be violating Palestinian rights under the Genocide Convention, i.e. committing genocide; U.S. officials have called the claims in that case “meritless.” The U.S. has similarly criticized the court’s opinion that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories violates international law. When the International Criminal Court announced in May that it was issuing arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Ntanyahu and now former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Biden denounced the decision as “outrageous.” Secretary of State Antony Blinken suggested that his administration might work with Congress to impose sanctions on the ICC in response.
The United States’ case for climate impunity is more subtle, legalistic, and widely shared—at least among other major greenhouse gas emitters. A 97-page written statement to the ICJ notes among several other arguments that human rights law doesn’t state that countries have to protect humans from global warming, the effects of which could threaten their rights. “A recognition that anthropogenic climate change can adversely affect the enjoyment of human rights,” the U.S. argues, “does not mean that States have international human rights obligations to mitigate anthropogenic [greenhouse gas] emissions.”
The case has been the site of rare agreement between the U.S. and China, the world’s two largest polluters, whose relationship has deteriorated significantly in recent years amid trade disputes. Both joined other major polluters—including Saudi Arabia and Australia—in arguing that UN climate change negotiations “provide the basis for states’ legal obligations to fight global warming and address the consequences of their historic contributions,” as China’s representative to the ICJ noted in comments to that body. These polluters posit the UNFCCC as the best possible tool for handling the climate crisis, urging the world to stick with a status quo that smaller, climate-vulnerable countries argue leaves them behind. Ralph Regenvanu, Vanuatu’s special envoy for climate change and environment, said in a statement Wednesday that the U.S., China, Saudi Arabia and Australia this week “have pointed to existing treaties and commitments that have regrettably failed to motivate substantial reductions in emissions.” A decision in the case isn’t expected until at least next summer. Though not legally binding, it could set a precedent for future climate-related litigation.
