Abnormal climatic phenomena threaten environment of human lives to a grave extent. In Japan, too, record-making hot days continue, while gigantic sizes of typhoons and torrential rains cause extraordinary damages. The frequency and magnitude grow every year.
STATE’S AUTHORITIES HAVE OBLIGATIONS TO TAKE RIGHT POLICIES
Global warming continues
The United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announces that ‘the world’s average temperature of the year 2024 has recorded the highest in the history of weather observation, which exceeded by 1.55 degrees Celsius compared with those of before the industrial revolutions.’
The Japan’s Meteorological Agency stated last March that ‘here in Japan, too, temperature has risen for these years (1995-2024) consecutively by 1.3 degrees Celsius on the average, compared with the earlier data of the twentieth century. In the Western region of the country, in 2020 it was hotter by almost 6 degrees for some time in the year.’
Due to draughts coming from abnormal weathers, forest fires broke out, scorching the land for over one month in Sanriku-cho, Iwate Prefecture, in the northeastern part of the Honshu Island. Fresh memory still remains. The same province, however, is exposed to fears of torrential rains, such as linear rainbands.
UN organization issues counsel
The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the main judiciary arm of the United Nations, publicly released a critical ‘advisory opinions’ last July 23, which says that ‘from a point of international law, state authorities have obligation to take a policy to respond to climate change.’
The recommendations have no legal binding force, but, reportedly, they will impact practically on numerous litigations filed by the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and on policies of every country to cope with the climate change.
Influence will be enormous to Japan Meteorologists warn that temperature will go up by 5.1 degrees in Japan if the world average surges by four degrees provided no measure is taken to stop exhaustions of greenhouse effect gases. They claim that Japan is situated in the northern hemisphere where landmass prevails, being vulnerable to consequences of climate change. Accordingly, the world’s average easily becomes higher.
It is quite logical that an immense scope of floods take place due to extraordinary precipitations caused by an enormous volume of vapor in the air that comes from intense heat. That critically impacts on agricultural production.
Twenty-seven students have launched campaign
The inquiry raised to the ICJ was initiated by Vanuatu, an island nation of the Pacific, and another 132 countries have joined unitedly the proposal supporting the consultation. Reportedly, the original campaign had started with the 27 students of the South Pacific University (a public university founded cooperatively by the 12 small islands nations in Oceania).
Direct motivation had lied in the crisis-ridden sentiment among them, who feared that it should be impossible to achieve the target of the Paris Agreement of 1.5 degrees. And by the year 2020 the Vanuatu’s youth successfully had united with groups of young people in the rest of the world, extending the campaign worldwide.
Statements and opinion letters have been presented to the ICJ from 91 nations as well as international organizations, and this has led to the recent announcement of judicial decisions.
How will the Japanese government respond to these sincere and serious messages and take actions? We must carefully watch developments.
異常気象の脅威は人間生活に深刻な影響を及ぼしている。日本でも記録的な猛暑が続いているが、大型台風や集中豪雨による甚大な災害も多発している。その頻度と規模は年々増大・拡大している。
進む深刻な温暖化
国連気象機関は、「２０２４年の世界平均気温は産業革命前と比べて１・55℃上昇し、観測史上最高を記録した」と発表している。
気象庁は本年３月、日本でも20世紀初頭と比べ、近年（１９９５年～24年）、平均１・３度上がっている。20年には西日本で、平年より６度近く高い時期があったと発表した。
日本では異常気象による干ばつで、森林火災が１カ月以上も続いた岩手県三陸町の火災も記憶に新しいが、線状降水帯など集中豪雨の脅威にさらされている。
国連機関が「勧告」
本年７月23日、国連の主要な司法機関である国際司法裁判所（ＩＣＪ） は、「国際法上、国家には気候変動対策をとる義務がある」とする極めて重要な「勧告意見」を公表した。 勧告には法的拘束力はないが、今後、気候変動枠組条約締約国会議（ＣＯＰ）や各国から多数提出されている気候訴訟、各国の気候変動対策等に実質的な影響を及ぼす可能性があるといわれている。
日本への影響は大
気象学者らは、温室効果ガスの排出を削減せず、世界平均が４度上昇した場合、日本では５・１度上がると警告する。陸地が多い北半球の日本では気候変動による影響を受けやすく世界平均よりも上昇幅が大きくなりやすいという。
猛暑が増え、多くの水蒸気が大気中に含まれ、雨の降り方が極端になれば、甚大水害が起きることは必至だ。農業生産にも悪影響が出る。
27人の学生が主導
今回のＩＣＪへの諮問は、太平洋の島しょ国であるバヌアツが主導し、１３２カ国が共同提案国となったものだが、バヌアツの動きは、南太平洋大学（オセアニアの12 の小規模島嶼国家群が共同で設立した公立大学）の27人の学生が主導したキャンペーンから始まったといわれている。
このままではパリ協定の「１・５℃目標」を実現できない、という危機感が直接の動機だが、２０２０年には、世界の若者グループと連携、世界的な広がりを見せた。
ＩＣＪには91カ国と国際機関から陳述書や意見書が提出され、「勧告」に結実したが、日本政府がこの重く真摯なメッセージをどう受け止めて行動に移すのか、監視が求められる。
英訳版↓
No.1420 ICJ’s Counsel on Climate
Abnormal climatic phenomena threaten environment of human lives to a grave extent. In Japan, too, record-making hot days continue, while gigantic sizes of typhoons and torrential rains cause extraordinary damages. The frequency and magnitude grow every year.
STATE’S AUTHORITIES HAVE OBLIGATIONS TO TAKE RIGHT POLICIES
Global warming continues
The United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announces that ‘the world’s average temperature of the year 2024 has recorded the highest in the history of weather observation, which exceeded by 1.55 degrees Celsius compared with those of before the industrial revolutions.’
The Japan’s Meteorological Agency stated last March that ‘here in Japan, too, temperature has risen for these years (1995-2024) consecutively by 1.3 degrees Celsius on the average, compared with the earlier data of the twentieth century. In the Western region of the country, in 2020 it was hotter by almost 6 degrees for some time in the year.’
Due to draughts coming from abnormal weathers, forest fires broke out, scorching the land for over one month in Sanriku-cho, Iwate Prefecture, in the northeastern part of the Honshu Island. Fresh memory still remains. The same province, however, is exposed to fears of torrential rains, such as linear rainbands.
UN organization issues counsel
The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the main judiciary arm of the United Nations, publicly released a critical ‘advisory opinions’ last July 23, which says that ‘from a point of international law, state authorities have obligation to take a policy to respond to climate change.’
The recommendations have no legal binding force, but, reportedly, they will impact practically on numerous litigations filed by the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and on policies of every country to cope with the climate change.
Influence will be enormous to Japan
Meteorologists warn that temperature will go up by 5.1 degrees in Japan if the world average surges by four degrees provided no measure is taken to stop exhaustions of greenhouse effect gases. They claim that Japan is situated in the northern hemisphere where landmass prevails, being vulnerable to consequences of climate change. Accordingly, the world’s average easily becomes higher.
It is quite logical that an immense scope of floods take place due to extraordinary precipitations caused by an enormous volume of vapor in the air that comes from intense heat. That critically impacts on agricultural production.
Twenty-seven students have launched campaign
The inquiry raised to the ICJ was initiated by Vanuatu, an island nation of the Pacific, and another 132 countries have joined unitedly the proposal supporting the consultation. Reportedly, the original campaign had started with the 27 students of the South Pacific University (a public university founded cooperatively by the 12 small islands nations in Oceania).
Direct motivation had lied in the crisis-ridden sentiment among them, who feared that it should be impossible to achieve the target of the Paris Agreement of 1.5 degrees. And by the year 2020 the Vanuatu’s youth successfully had united with groups of young people in the rest of the world, extending the campaign worldwide.
Statements and opinion letters have been presented to the ICJ from 91 nations as well as international organizations, and this has led to the recent announcement of judicial decisions.
How will the Japanese government respond to these sincere and serious messages and take actions? We must carefully watch developments.
September 24, 2025