«States that do not respect climate agreements must pay the damages».Because the resolution approved at the UN has historical value

The General Assembly has mandated the International Court of Justice to determine whether failure to comply with climate agreements can be considered a violation of international law

Should countries take legal responsibility for how much they pollute?According to the UN, yes.This, in fact, is what the International Court of Justice will be invited to establish after the historic one resolution approved today by the United Nations General Assembly.The Court will in fact have to verify whether failure to comply with climate agreements could have legal consequences.If the answer is yes, the consequences will be defined for countries that fail to comply with their commitments.Even if these were non-binding, as in the case of the 2015 Paris Agreements.Among the 120 signatories who supported the approved resolution there is also Italy.Notably absent is the United States, where drilling began today in Alaska as part of the highly contested Willow Project.The document, which is approved one week after the publication of the summary of the new IPCC report.was brought to the attention of the Assembly by Vanuatu, a small island nation in the Pacific Ocean which, despite having made an infinitesimal contribution to global warming and having already achieved carbon neutrality, is preparing to be one of the territories most affected by the climate change.Above all due to its very low elevation which exposes the approximately 300 thousand inhabitants to rising sea levels.

Will national governments follow?

“Today we witnessed a victory of epochal proportions for climate justice,” declared the Prime Minister of Vanuatu, Ishmael Kalsakau, who called the resolution “the beginning of a new era in plurilateral climate collaboration”."We are not to blame, yet we have to deal with devastating cyclones, floods, loss of biodiversity and rising sea levels", echoed Cynthia Houniuhi, president of the Pacific students association against climate change, quoted by Guardian.Now the Court will have to work on the legal framework of climate responsibility.The hope of the United Nations is that this can then influence the decisions of world governments, even if international law remains non-binding.In this way, the aim is to bridge the gap between the promises made by the richest countries and the actions actually undertaken.