It’s a macabre picture: tombs, headstones and wreaths, lovingly selected by family members, floating into the oblivion of the ocean, and with them the remains of loved ones uprooted from their final resting place. Some are dragged back to land, washed up on beaches on the Grenadian island of Carriacou, transforming the beautiful Caribbean shoreline into a chaotic graveyard.
This disturbing reality, says Grenada’s prime minister, Dickon Mitchell, is a poignant example of the gravity of the climate crisis and its impact on his country.
“Because of the rise in sea level, the Tibeau cemetery where the ancestors of our citizens in Carriacou are laid to rest has essentially gone out into the ocean. So you appreciate that in a sense, both from a spiritual and ancestral perspective, even the dead are now victims of climatic changes,” he told the Guardian. “This goes to the very core of people’s spirituality, their sense of comfort, and their sense of connection with the past. It creates a lot of stress and trauma for people because they question what future they have.”
The plight of the Tibeau cemetery is being presented as evidence of the worsening crisis facing vulnerable countries in the Caribbean in climate justice proceedings being considered by the international court of justice (ICJ). The case, which opened on Monday, seeks clarification on what states can be held liable for in relation to climate change.
It has attracted the attention of numerous countries and organisations, with a record 91 written submissions lodged for consideration before this week’s landmark oral hearings in The Hague.
The court has been asked only to provide an advisory opinion, but human rights lawyers say the court’s opinion could and should strengthen the legal basis for holding countries accountable for their current and historical environmental damage.
Justin Sobion, who is coordinating the Caribbean’s submissions to the ICJ and is acting as Grenada’s counsel, said giving Caribbean countries their day in the court to fight for climate justice was historic. “For the very first time in the court’s history – of almost 80 years – it would define the parameters of the exact obligations of states to protect the climate system from anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases,” he said.
“We can no longer negotiate with the climate,” he added. Referring to the annual UN climate summits as “nothing more than political compromises,” he said an ambitious ICJ advisory opinion could help fill gaps in the international framework that prevent countries from accessing climate justice.
Grenada, one of the countries that saw catastrophic damage when Hurricane Beryl bore down on the Caribbean in July, is confident it has a strong case for loss and damage due to climate change.
Mitchell said: “It’s a very graphic and grim picture and we are not trying to oversell or exaggerate the damage or the destruction. I think if you saw Carriacou and Petite Martinique after the hurricane, you will understand why it was described as Armageddon-like destruction. A French ambassador who visited said it reminded him of world war two. The difference is that in world war two you may have had buildings that were not bombed and were fully intact, but on Cariaccou it was almost complete and total devastation everywhere.”
The prime minister said climate-vulnerable islands needed massive amounts of aid and financing similar to what was used to rebuild Europe and Japan after the second world war. But he said getting it from rich countries that had garnered their wealth by polluting the planet was an uphill battle, and he was not surprised that Cop29 in Azerbaijan had ended in an offer that critics called an insult and that was, at $300bn, far below the trillions that vulnerable developing countries need to stay alive.
“We expect this to be an arduous, long, difficult fight, but it’s a fight that we have no choice but to embark upon simply because our very existence as part of the civilised world is at stake. Our very way of life, our culture, people’s lives and livelihoods are at stake,” Mitchell said.
He said it was not just a fight for the Caribbean’s survival. “Carbon emissions don’t just sit over the Caribbean or over Africa. They sit over the entire planet, and at the end of the day the citizens of the world are going to bear the consequences if we do not take the appropriate action to make sure that we can reverse, correct and adapt to the changes that are taking place.”
He stressed that getting finance pledges was only half the battle. Getting access to money collected was the other half. “[Funds] are generally housed in the developed world – Germany, South Korea, etc. The accreditation processes that they put small island developing states through … are extremely arduous and complex. And oftentimes it’s almost doomed to failure,” Mitchell said. “I’m not confident at this stage that we will be able to get access to this money directly, or particularly as direct funding to respond to the climatic loss and damage that we have. And that’s the fight for me.”
He said the current models of project-based submissions for climate financing were not viable for countries in hurricane zones, especially when they have just been hit by a disaster and are struggling to recover basic systems and services such as running water, electricity and internet.
Mitchell’s concerns were echoed by Ryan Pinder, the attorney general of the Bahamas, who is representing his country at the ICJ oral hearings. Speaking to the Guardian before the proceedings began, he said he expected to hear opposing perspectives.
“Industrial countries will argue that it’s their state’s right to do what they want and they shouldn’t then be held liable for that purpose. Those most affected [by climate change] will argue that countries that neglected something that was rather clear and neglected warning signs that were given some 40 years ago, in certain instances, have caused this and therefore there has to be some sort of liability or reparation,” Pinder said.
Like Grenada, the Bahamas is facing the dual climate change impacts of sea level rises and extreme weather events such as Hurricane Dorian, which in 2019 damaged an estimated 13,000 homes and affected more than 76,000 people. Pinder said at least 40% of the country’s current debt could be attributed to rebuilding after climate change-related disasters.
“It is important for people to realise that this is not some grandstanding effort by countries like us. This is a life-and-death situation for us, for many of our countries and for many of our people,” he said, giving the example of diminishing fish stocks due to increasing ocean temperatures. He said this was destroying the country’s important fishing industry.
Pinder said securing a legal basis for loss and damage claims had serious implications for countries such as the Bahamas. “We believe that we’re right in the law on this issue. And we are certainly relying on the judges at the ICJ to reaffirm that belief for us,” he said.
