Ecuador’s President Correa calls for creation of an International Court of Environmental Justice to punish crimes, oblige payment of environmental debts: “Greed is becoming our worst nightmare”

Ecuador’s Correa Proposes International Court of Environment Justice at COP21, Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa reiterated his call for an International Climate Justice Court during a speech at the University of Poitiers, France, Nov. 27. 2015 by La nueva Televisión del Sur C.A., www.teleSURtv.net/english, 30 November 2015

Correa felt the five minutes each speaker has wasn’t enough to present all his country’s proposals.

Speaking at the COP21 Climate Summit in Paris, Monday, Ecuadorean president Rafael Correa argued that “Unlimited economic growth is undesirable and impossible,” explaining that consumism is dominating efficiency.

He said that “greed is becoming our worst nightmare” and that the key question wasn’t of economic growth, but of what and who was growing. “Someone in a rich country emits 38 times more CO2 than someone from a poor country,” he said, saying that there was a planetary emergency that demanded world wide treatment, and an ecological debt that should be paid.

“Conservation in poor countries isn’t possible if quality of life there isn’t improved,” he stated.

Concretely, Correa called for a universal declration of the rights of nature, something that Ecuador has already recognized, and for the creation of an International Court of Environmental Justice.

The court, he said, would punish environmental crimes and oblige the payment of environmental debts.

Correa was the second of 147 heads of states and country leaders due to speak today, the first day of the climate summit. [Emphasis added]

[Refer also to: Fracking to go on trial in 2017 at international human rights tribunal; Will examine whether some countries breached basic human rights by allowing fracking ]

This entry was posted in Other Legal. Bookmark the permalink.