Fourteen Pacific island nations formalized a new diplomatic alliance Thursday, vowing to use every available tool of international relations to compel major industrialized countries to adopt binding emissions reduction targets before the next international climate conference — or face coordinated political and legal consequences.
The coalition, which represents nations whose collective population is less than 15 million but whose combined exclusive economic zones constitute one of the largest maritime territories on Earth, announced that its member states would file a coordinated request for an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice on the legal obligations of states with respect to climate change. Such opinions, while not binding, carry significant moral and political weight and have shaped international legal norms in other domains.
The coalition's founding declaration cited data showing that member nations collectively emit less than 0.02% of global greenhouse gases while facing some of the most severe consequences of climate change, including coastal flooding, saltwater intrusion into freshwater supplies, and intensifying tropical cyclones. "We did not cause this crisis. We are the ones paying for it with our land, our culture, and in some cases our very survival as nations," said the coalition's inaugural chair at a press conference in a neutral capital.
“We did not cause this crisis. We are the ones paying for it with our land, our culture, and in some cases our very survival as nations.”
— Coalition inaugural chair, founding press conference
The coalition is also announcing a unified position for the next round of international climate negotiations, calling for industrialized countries to commit to a 65% reduction in emissions from 2005 levels by 2035 -- significantly more aggressive than the targets most major economies have currently committed to. Coalition members said they would work to build support for this position among other vulnerable nations, arguing that a bloc representing the majority of the world's countries by number, if not by emissions, could create significant political pressure even without economic leverage.
Reactions from major industrialized countries were largely diplomatic in tone but noncommittal on substance. Several governments praised the coalition's formation while declining to endorse the specific emissions targets it was calling for, arguing that nationally determined contributions already represented ambitious commitments in light of domestic political and economic constraints. Climate advocates said that gap -- between diplomatic goodwill and binding commitments -- was precisely what the coalition was designed to close.