Evidence of the recent Tropical Cyclone Judy and Tropical Cyclone Kevin can be observed along the coastline of Sulphur Bay on Tanna Island, where debris washed ashore during the two Category 4 hurricanes in March of 2023.
Global women and girls NGO CARE, has welcomed the United Nations General Assembly’s (UNGA) vote in favour of a landmark resolution supporting the upcoming advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on climate change.
This is a significant step forward in the global effort to clarify countries’ legal obligations to address climate change – and to protect the rights of communities already facing its impacts.
The vote follows the Court’s landmark ruling in July last year affirming that states have legal responsibilities to act on climate change. With 141 countries, including Australia, voting in favour and just eight against, the resolution reinforces growing momentum to define what those obligations mean in practice, and who is accountable.
Led by Vanuatu and Pacific Island Nations, the push for the ICJ advisory opinion has brought the realities of frontline communities into the centre of global decision-making. It reflects a growing demand from countries on the frontlines of the crisis to move beyond commitments and towards responsibility.
CARE has decades of experience working across the Pacific, with teams in Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and Timor Leste, and partnerships with local organisations across Tonga, the Solomon Islands, Samoa and Fiji. We have supported
Sébastien Fesneau, CARE Vanuatu Country Director, says:
“In Vanuatu, women and girls face the steepest risks to climate change. Legal clarity must now translate into finance and action that reaches communities quickly and safely.”
Sam Quinn, Climate and Partnerships Lead at CARE Australia, says:
“The Pacific has long been a global leader in driving global efforts toward climate justice, playing an instrumental role in introducing the loss and damage agenda to be part of global climate negotiations, and now spearheading this effort to bring climate justice to the ICJ and UNGA”
Across Asia and the Pacific, climate change is already disrupting lives: sea-level rise, extreme weather events and ecosystem loss are driving food and water insecurity, displacement, and increasing pressure on already vulnerable communities. The injustice is stark. Those who have contributed least to climate change are bearing the brunt of its consequences. And those impacts are not felt equally: women and girls, along with marginalised groups, face heightened risks to their safety, health, and livelihoods as climate pressures deepen existing inequalities.
CARE welcomes this progress and stands with partners calling for:
- Stronger global ambition and urgency to cut emissions and limit temperature rise to within 1.5°C
- Scaled-up, accessible climate finance for adaptation and loss and damage
- Greater recognition of the rights and leadership of women and girls in climate-related decision-making.
Clear legal guidance from the ICJ has the potential to reshape how the world responds to climate change. It must translate into urgent, inclusive and sustained action.
About CARE Australia
CARE Australia supports women around the globe to save lives, defeat poverty and achieve social justice. We work in partnership with local communities to provide equal opportunities for women that they have long been denied: the ability to earn an income, gain access to their fair share of resources, to lead and participate in decisions that affect their lives, and to be able to withstand the increasing impacts of climate disasters and other crises. www.care.org.au
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