Portugal has presented its observations in the oral hearings in the advisory process before the International Court of Justice on the obligations of States in the area of climate change.
This consultative process is the result of a request approved by consensus by the United Nations General Assembly in March 2023 after a negotiation process led by Vanuatu, and which Portugal supported from the outset by forming part of the “core group” that followed the negotiations.
This is a historic case before the International Court of Justice, involving the unprecedented participation of a hundred States and International Organizations, including many of the countries most affected by climate change, such as the small island States of the Pacific and Caribbean.
In its written observations submitted last March and now in the oral hearings, Portugal highlighted its vulnerable situation in the face of climate change, as shown in the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, having highlighted the importance of the obligation of international cooperation to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement of limiting the increase in global temperature to 1.5º above pre-industrial levels, the need to guarantee the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment (already guaranteed in the Portuguese Constitution of 1976) and the relevance of international cooperation also to protect people affected by climate change.
Portugal hopes that this opinion from the International Court of Justice will contribute to clarifying States’ obligations on climate change in order to allow for more ambitious global action to combat the challenge of climate change.
More information on this case and Portugal’s position is available at https://www.icj-cij.org/case/187