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This weekly round-up brings you key climate news from the past seven days, including a historic win for small island nations and a climate protest at a German airport.
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In a “historic” win for climate-threatened small island states, an international ocean court on Tuesday ruled that major polluters have obligations under a global treaty to protect the marine environment.
Asked to clarify the legally binding obligations of the 169 signatories of the 1994 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) – a UN court on maritime law – issued an “advisory opinion” stating that all parties must “take all necessary measures to prevent, reduce and control marine pollution from anthropogenic [greenhouse gas] emissions.”
While not legally binding, the court’s clarification on how international law should be applied sets an important precedent for future rulings on the matter.
Read more here.
Eight young Alaska residents filed a climate lawsuit against their state on Wednesday over a natural gas project they argue would violate their constitutional rights to a clean environment.
The lawsuit targets the Alaska LNG Project, a large-scale fossil fuel project developed by state-owned corporation Alaska Gasline Development Corporation (AGDC) and located on more than 200 acres near Prudhoe Bay, North America’s largest oil field on Alaska’s North Slope. The plant is expected to deliver up to 3.9 billion cubic feet of gas per day, mostly to be exported to international markets.
“The acceleration of climate change that this project will bring will affect what the land provides and brings to my culture,” Summer Sagoonick, the 22-year-old lead plaintiff in the case and a member of the Iñupiaq tribe, told The Guardian. “I am counting on the courts to protect my rights.”
Read more here.
A Brazilian environmental workers union has partially blamed the government for a record surge in Amazon wildfires in the first four months of 2024.
In a report issued on Monday, workers union Ascema said the government cut budgets for the country’s environmental agency Ibama to fight fires by 24% compared to 2023, leaving the agency with less than half of the 120 million reais (US$23,5 million) it had requested to fight fires. The cuts sparked intense negotiations between Ibama and the federal government for better pay and working conditions.
Brazil witnessed a concerning surge in fire outbreaks during the initial quarter of 2024, with over 17,000 recorded incidents from January to April, according to a report by the National Institute for Space Research (INPE). The surge marked an 81% increase compared to the same period in 2023, setting an unprecedented record in the past 26 years of data compilation.
Read more here.
Six climate activists breached the grounds and glued themselves to a runway at the Munich Airport on Saturday, leading to numerous flight cancellations and delays on one of the year’s busiest travel weekends.
The protesters were part of Last Generation, a student-led climate group mainly active in Germany, Italy, and Austria. On social media platform X (formerly Twitter), the group shared photos and videos of the demonstration, showing the six activists sitting on the runway and holding banners.
“The government subsidizes the airline industry with more than twelve billion euros annually, mainly by waiving kerosene and VAT, meaning almost half of all flight tickets are financed exclusively by tax money,” the group wrote on X.
The protest took place at the start of the Whitsun holiday, a peak travel time in Germany, with the Munich Airport expected to handle at least 350,000 passengers over the weekend. As a result, the airport was closed for two hours, with around 70 flights cancelled or diverted to other airpots. Police were quickly deployed to the scene and all protesters were arrested.
Read more here.
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