natural world heritage sites

A report published by leading international lawyers and commissioned by Climate Action Network of Australia (CANA) and the Climate Justice Programme has concluded that legal obligations on countries under the UNESCO World Heritage Convention require cuts to be made in greenhouse gas emissions. This means that countries, including the United States and Australia , must take action on climate change because of their legal duty to protect important natural heritage sites facing damage from climate change. The lawyers found that the Australian government's failure to ratify the Kyoto Protocol amounts to a violation of Articles 4 and 5 of the World Heritage Convention. The report is available at www.law.usyd.edu.au/scigl/SCIGLFinalReport21_09_04.pdf

The impact of climate change on some of the world's unique and irreplaceable areas was highlighted as petitions from three developing countries were handed in to the World Heritage Committee in Paris . The petitions ask the Committee to urgently place the Belize Barrier Reef, the Huascáran National Park ( Peru ) and the Sagarmatha National Park ( Nepal ) World Heritage Sites on the List of World Heritage in Danger as a result of climate change. Danger-listing is a legal mechanism under the UNESCO World Heritage Convention requiring an increased level of protection where the best parts of the planet are facing serious and specific dangers. State Parties to the Convention have a legal obligation to transmit World Heritage Sites to future generations.

As well as calling for remedial measures within each of the World Heritage Sites, these petitions from developing countries also point to the need and legal duty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to transmit World Heritage Sites to future generations.

Commenting on the three petitions, Peter Roderick, Director of the Climate Justice Programme said: “Glaciers and coral reefs are the canaries in the coal mine. The World Heritage Committee must urgently investigate these sites and ensure that everything necessary is done to maintain their world heritage status, to keep people safe and to pass them on intact to future generations. Legal duties require this action, including the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, and these duties must be respected both within the UNESCO and Kyoto processes.”