The World Court’s Biggest Case Is About Climate Change

Current conditions: A city in southeastern India recorded its heaviest 24-hour rainfall in three decades when Cyclone Fengal slammed the region and left 19 dead • Storm Bora flooded the Greek island of Rhodes over the weekend • The Great Lakes and surrounding states are seeing their first major lake effect snow event of the season.

THE TOP FIVE

1. World Court begins hearings on nations’ climate obligations

The International Court of Justice – also known as the World Court – today will start hearing from 99 countries and dozens of organizations on what legal obligations rich countries should have in fighting climate change and helping vulnerable nations recover and adapt. Crucially, the judges will also ponder potential consequences for countries’ actions (or lack thereof) that have caused climate harm. Major oil producers and greenhouse gas emitters, as well as OPEC, will also speak at the hearings. The case is the largest in the history of the top U.N. court. An advisory opinion from the World Court would not be binding, but the outcome “could serve as the basis for other legal actions, including domestic lawsuits,” The Associated Press reported. The hearings will run for two weeks and a decision is due in 2025.

2. Talks on a global plastics treaty fail

Negotiators from more than 170 countries failed to come to an agreement about how to limit the unrelenting flow of plastic pollution. The week-long U.N. Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee meeting in South Korea was the fifth such summit so far and was to be the last, but because it ended without a deal, leaders decided to kick the can down the road and return for more talks at an undetermined later date. The tensions at this meeting weren’t that different from those hampering the COP climate talks on fossil fuel use, with major oil-producing nations blocking meaningful progress. In this case, while more than 100 countries called for a binding treaty to reduce plastic production, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and others opposed this idea and instead favored a voluntary treaty aimed at improving waste management. The U.S signalled support for the idea of reducing plastic pollution but opposed mandatory production caps. Most plastics are made from fossil fuels, and the U.S. is one of the most prolific producers of plastic waste.

3. Land degradation summit begins

And speaking of U.N. summits, there’s another (yes, another!) kicking off today. The convention on combating desertification (UNCCD), taking place in Saudi Arabia, focuses on stopping land degradation – the declining health of the world’s soil and the loss of landscapes through desertification and drought. A recent study from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research found that land degradation already affects 15 million square kilometers (about 5.7 million square miles) – an area nearly the size of Russia – and this is expanding by 1 million square miles every year. The report warned this degradation is threatening Earth’s ability to sustain life, and called for “an urgent course correction for how the world grows food and uses land.” Fixing the problem will be costly. One of the UNCCD’s lead negotiators put it at $2.6 trillion by 2030, or about $1 billion per day over the next five years, much of which will need to come from the private sector. The talks will run through December 13.

4. Stellantis CEO resigns

Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares abruptly stepped down yesterday. The carmaker is the fifth-largest by volume, and owns brands including Dodge, Jeep, Chrysler, Ram, and Peugeot. Sales slumped this year, particularly in North America (deliveries were down 18% in the first half of the year), and in September the company issued a profit warning on its 2024 results. Recent analysis from CNBC chalked the struggles up to stale inventory, high prices, and low vehicle quality. “The whole discussion on Stellantis has basically collapsed,” said Daniel Roeska, managing director at global investment firm Bernstein. “We’re not talking about free cash flows. We’re not talking about long-term EV strategy. … We’re only talking about how much will it cost the company to get rid of the U.S. inventory.”

5. U.S. scientists are developing a solar geoengineering alert system

In case you missed it over the long weekend: The U.S. is building an alert system that looks for signs that other nations are engaging in solar geoengineering to cool the planet, according to The New York Times. Using high-altitude balloons, government agencies including NOAA, NASA, and the Department of Energy are monitoring atmospheric aerosols across the world in case there is a sudden increase that could indicate an effort to dim the sun. Tampering with the Earth’s atmosphere in this way could quickly bring temperatures down, but the broader effects of such an experiment on global systems is unknown, and scientists warn it could have devastating unintended consequences. The U.S. is still developing this alert system, which won’t be fully operational for years, “but is on the leading edge,” the Times said.

THE KICKER

As early as next year, China could account for more than half of the world’s EV fleet.