Ecocide – is it the right international legal response to climate change?

Abstract

The innovative concept of ecocide has emerged in a context of profound global environmental degradation, coinciding with the serious climate crisis that is bringing us closer to a real turning point of exceeding 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels. The proposal supported by some states and civil society to initiate the process of reforming the Rome Statute to include ecocide as an international crime is of considerable interest. However, in our opinion, the allusion to the severity of climate change does not seem to be the right argument, since the characteristics of the International Criminal Court mean that it may not be a valid legal response to this complex phenomenon.