Will courts turn off the gas taps?

Last week’s ruling from the International Court of Justice strengthens the hand of activists who want to challenge Mozambique’s fossil fuel projects in the courts

Good afternoon. Last week’s advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the liability of states over climate change will be unwelcome news for fossil fuel investors in Mozambique, and by extension for the Mozambican government.

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Perhaps the government should have been more careful in what it wished for. Over two years ago, Mozambique was one of many countries whose government put its name to a United Nations resolution calling on the ICJ to give an opinion on the obligations of states in respect of climate change. That resolution spoke in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, the global production of which is dominated by a handful of major polluters. Since Africa as a whole accounts for a tiny proportion of those emissions (3.7%, according to the International Energy Agency’s latest figure, for 2022), African countries might have thought they had nothing to worry about from the court.