The Canopy is a weekday morning email newsletter provided by the team at Greenpeace Australia Pacific.

UN adopts landmark resolution on climate justice

In a monumental win for climate justice, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) overnight unanimously moved to refer a Vanuatu-led resolution on the human rights impacts of climate change to the world’s highest court - the International Court of Justice. 

This means that governments will now be forced to consider the human rights impacts of their climate policies and be compelled to take more ambitious action under existing international agreements, such as the Paris Agreement.

For Greenpeace, this vote is the culmination of years of campaigning, coordinating events, petitions, actions, political inside track work and tactics with allies in the Pacific and abroad. We have mobilised our network of 26 offices in over 55 countries to garner support for the vote.

TOP STORIES:

UN adopts landmark resolution on climate justice
The UN General Assembly on Wednesday adopted by consensus a resolution calling for the world body's top court to outline legal obligations related to climate change. Pushed for years by Vanuatu and Pacific islander youth, the measure asks the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to lay out nations' obligations for protecting Earth's climate, and the legal consequences they face if they don't.

EU fossil fuel car ban gets final green light
The 27 EU member states gave final approval Tuesday to a ban on sales of new fossil fuel cars by 2035, after Germany dropped a last-minute blocking effort.

Greenland ice sheet which could raise sea level by 7m ‘nears point of no return’
The Greenland Ice Sheet covers 660,200 square miles in the Arctic – and if it melts completely, would raise global sea level by 6.9 metres (about 23 feet).

Circulation of deep ocean water in Southern Ocean is slowing, which spells bad news for the climate
A "landmark" paper, today published in Nature, said the circulation of Antarctic bottom water is likely to reduce by around 40 per cent by 2050.

Plibersek’s biodiversity credits ‘won’t save koalas’, Greens say
A new biodiversity credit system to reverse the sustained catastrophic losses of Australian wildlife has garnered support from the opposition and developers, but conservation groups and the Greens say it could actually damage wildlife recovery.

New gas fields in doubt even without safeguard, investors say
Powerful investors say plans to develop new fossil fuel projects in Australia are already facing major challenges and doubts about their viability in a decarbonising world, even before the federal government’s introduction of tougher emissions limits later this year.

Chief scientist to investigate fish kills as Minns spends first day as premier in Menindee
NSW’s chief scientist Professor Hugh Durrant-Whyte will probably lead an inquiry into why a mass fish kill in Menindee, 20 times larger than 2019’s catastrophe, struck the Darling-Baaka River this month.

Safeguard mechanism agreement unlikely to increase energy prices and stop future coal and gas projects, experts say
Concerns that the landmark climate policy to reduce emissions will deter energy investment, increase power prices and put a stop to future coal and gas projects are highly unlikely, industry experts say.

Fossil hunters uncover ancient Australian wombat
Researchers in Australia have uncovered evidence of a previously unknown ancient marsupial that roamed the continent some 25 million years ago, described as a cross between a wombat and a marsupial lion which is thought to have weighed up to 50kg.

 

Work like this is only made possible by our supporters. Greenpeace accepts NO government funding or corporate donations to remain impartial. To amplify meaningful climate activism in Australia, become a regular giver today.