By Peter Richards
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Mar 20, CMC – President of the Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), Justice Winston Anderson, Friday urged regional governments and organizations to push for the establishment of a new international climate compensation fund (ICIC) to help deal with the impact of climate change, especially among small island developing states (SIDS).
He said that such a fund would assist in circumventing the difficulties associated with assigning liability to corporations and offer a viable alternative to protracted and complex litigation.
“I think it responds to the recognition that corporations, which are the emitters of greenhouse gases, should bear the responsibility for remedying the damage, and therefore entirely consistent with the polluter pays principle,” Justice Anderson told a two-day international conference ending here on Friday.
The conference “Climate Change Advisory Opinions from International Courts: Exploring Synergies & Implications” brought together climate lawyers, scientists, and civil society, including from the Caribbean region and other small island developing states, as well as international climate law experts.
It is organised by the University of the West Indies’ (UWI) Caribbean Environmental Law Unit in collaboration with the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law, the University of Oslo`s Energy and Environment Programme, the Horst Sigrist Prize and the Judicial Institute for the Environment as well as the Global Network for Human Rights and the Environment Caribbean region and the International Law Association, Caribbean Branch.
Speaking on the topic “A New Pathway to Corporate Accountability in Climate Justice,” Justice Anderson said he believes the fund being proposed represents a necessary step towards achieving equitable and effective corporate accountability.
“It’s also consistent with international responsibility of states, because remember from the Trail Smelter days, the states within whose territory the action occurs, which causes transboundary harm, they have a responsibility to remedying the damage in other states.
“There is some precedent for such funds, both at the domestic level and at the international level,” he said, noting that at the domestic level, there are super funds, for example, in the United States, and these are aimed at making fuel companies financially responsible for the harm caused by climate change.
Justice Anderson there’s a similar fund proposed for the Philippines and at the international level, “there are funds, as we all know, particularly the fund for responding to loss and damage established under the Paris Agreement, and which has been debated in several of the Conference of the Parties (COP),” the the annual supreme decision-making forum of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
“But one of the things that is evident is that there is a lack of energy, in my view, in relation to capitalising this fund. There is, at the moment, I don’t remember the number right now, but just a million dollars, which has been committed to that fund.
“It is said that it is hoped that by 2035, nine years from now, the fund will be capitalised at 300 billion with a B dollars,” he said, adding, “if you believe that, then I have a bridge I can sell you somewhere”.
Justice Anderson said that if, in fact, that is true, the funds will be available in nine years. Caribbean countries, which, as far as the 1980’s, have recognised that environmental rights are in fact human rights, cannot afford to wait as they deal with the ongoing impact of climate change.
He told the audience that Jamaica suffered catastrophic damage less than six months ago, and Jamaica has applied to this fund established under the Paris Agreement, “and it has gotten nothing, zero, nada.
“I gather, and I could be corrected…if I’m wrong, that the maximum amount that a country can get when the fund is capitalised, it’s not now, is 20 million US dollars. Jamaica suffered a loss to the extent of US$6.5 billion, 6.5 billion dollars. The gross domestic product of Jamaica is US23 billion, which means that a third of its gross domestic product was wiped out by the passage of Melissa last October.
The CCJ president said that if the international community gets its act together, it will offer Jamaica 20 US million dollars.
“I don’t think that that is good enough. The fund I propose also has support in the international community, or precedent in the international community,” he said, noting that the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has a similar fund in respect of marine pollution.
“So where there is pollution at sea, if there is a ship passing by the coast, Barbados coastlines are polluted, then people who suffer in Barbados can sue the fund which has been created under the IMO. One need not try to find the ship owner that caused the problem, or the ship that caused the problem, and trace some causal connection between the emission of the pollution and the damage suffered.
“You simply sue the fund, which is a legal entity, and against which actions can be brought. And that fund has established a grand number of credentials, which you have on the board.”
He said that there is a CLC basic fund which is supplemented by another fund, and that the ship owners contribute to the CLC fund, and persons who receive a certain quantity of oil into the country contribute to the IOPC fund.
“So that’s a precedent that I propose could be followed in relation to the ICIC fund. I think it should be established by an international convention, a global convention. I think that the funding capitalisation of the fund should be compulsory, and it should require corporations emitting greenhouse gases above a certain threshold to contribute to that fund.”
Justice Anderson said contributions could be in cash or cash, or it could be by way of taking out insurance, as with the IMO fund.
“I believe that the countries in which these corporations are operating have an international responsibility to ensure that these corporations pay into such a fund, and that the victims of extreme weather conditions, or perhaps other events as well, should be able to sue the fund in their own countries.
“I believe that that would bypass many of the problems I cited with using domestic law, whether it’s jurisdiction, justice ability, enforcement, etc. So the suggestion then is that, first of all, the executive in the Caribbean, or policymakers, or prime ministers and presidents, could and should consider this idea, and if they find it worthwhile, promote that idea.
“ I think our parliaments as well would have a lot of heavy lifting to do, because a lot of legislation that would need to be passed, or enforced, enforcement of planning measures, whether it’s setbacks from the coastlines, because we don’t want to build right next to the sea, we have a hurricane, and then they say, look, we have a problem.”
Justice Anderson said that building codes would have to be enforced “to make sure that our buildings are constructed according to acceptable standards that will withstand, you know, many of the kind of weather conditions that we experience”.
He also said that adaptation and mitigation measures ought to be included in the legislation and that there should be an inventory of greenhouse gas emitters.
“Emitters in our countries above a certain threshold should be required to pay into the fund, and there should be the designation of national focal points. The judiciary, the judges, of course, this is a new concept, so the judges would need to be sensitised to what is required here, and I believe there’s also a role for civil society and the media.”
Justice Anderson said that these are some of the areas, some of the topics, provisions that would be covered in the proposed fund.
“So the next steps then, assuming that there is interest, would be perhaps for CARICOM and the Five C’s, the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre in Belize, to consider this, and if they are persuaded to take it on board, there needs to be buying, political buying, from our policymakers in CARICOM, and of course beyond CARICOM.
“I suspect there would be significant support for this idea among many small island developing states and in many other regions as well. I think our member states should propose, negotiate, and agree on the convention.
“Private sector consultation, of course, would be required, and civil society and the media ought to be engaged,” the CCJ president added.
CMC/pr/ir/2026