Ecocide law protecting the future of life on Earth

[Music]

exactly

two years ago today my dearest friend

and closest colleague

was diagnosed with an aggressive lung

cancer which was spreading rapidly

by the time they discovered it she was

already beyond medical help

of the six weeks they predicted she

survived just a month

passing away on easter day 2019.

i loved her she was glamorous and

charming

sharp as attack and generous to a fault

she was also a pioneer and a visionary

but

never in a remote kind of way she was

warm

and engaging with a mischievous sense of

humor

and a remarkable talent for making you

feel like you were the most

important person in the world when she

was speaking with you

i’ve lost count of the number of people

men and women

who’ve told me they fell in love with

her or that a conversation with her

turned their lives around

and working with her was a combination

of enormous fun

deadly seriousness and unpredictable

adventure

and she left me a rather unusual legacy

her name was polly higgins and she was a

lawyer

having given up a lucrative career in

the courtroom

she dedicated the last 10 years of her

life four and a half of which i spent

working closely with her

to just one thing putting in place

a law to protect the earth

together we co-founded a campaign in

2017

and it is this campaign that i inherited

from her when she died it’s a campaign

you may not have heard of

but it’s based on a single simple idea

an idea that has the power to turn the

entire planetary ship around

the concept is this make ecocide

an international crime

what do we mean by ecocide quite simply

the destruction of ecosystems just as

homicide is killing a person

or genocide is destroying a people

ecocide of all kinds has been committed

repeatedly and relentlessly

over many decades by some of the world’s

biggest corporations

leading inexorably to the global climate

and ecological emergency

in which we find ourselves ecocide is in

fact

a root cause of the existential crisis

humanity is now facing

and right now unlike genocide

it is still for the most part permitted

by law

we all know you can’t go to a government

and get a permit to slaughter people for

your new business

killing people is criminal but you can

get a permit to open a mine

or to frack for oil and gas or to engage

in industrial fishing

of the kind that destroys entire swathes

of the seabed

you can destroy soil ecosystems and

insect ecosystems with toxic pesticides

you can chop and burn down rainforest

with impunity

there’s a little story that explains

this rather clearly

about a decade ago the head of a major

uk bank

was asked in a meeting why is it that

you continue to finance these

destructive activities

his response well it’s not a crime

clearly it’s time to change the rules

now in our western dominant culture we

draw the moral line

using criminal law and it is criminal

law that is missing with regard to

ecocide

there are thousands of environmental

regulations around the world

already in place but corporations

tend to treat them as complications to

be worked around

they might adjust their budgeting for a

new regulation to accommodate more court

cases or compensation claims

but they don’t change their behavior why

because it’s easier and more profitable

not to

there is currently no enforceable

deterrent in place

to prevent mass damage and destruction

of ecosystems

destruction of nature

but there can be and it’s actually quite

simple

almost laughably so make ecocide a crime

creating personal

individual criminal responsibility for

key decision makers

no ceo wants to be seen or prosecuted as

a criminal

it’s really bad for your share price

banks cannot finance criminal activity

insurers can’t underwrite it

government ministers can’t issue permits

for it

so how can this be done there

is a straightforward effective way to

make ecocide

a crime on a global scale and that is by

amending

the rome statute of the international

criminal court

or icc for short now the icc is really

interesting

because of how it works it’s the only

global mechanism

that directly accesses the already

existing criminal justice systems of all

its member states

so if you make something a crime at the

icc any member state ratifying that

crime

must also include it in their own

domestic legislation

this makes it the most efficient way to

create a coherent law across borders

and that’s fundamentally important with

environmental crimes

because the worst offenders are huge

transnational corporations

the rome statute of the international

criminal court governs

and i quote the most serious crimes of

concern

to the international community as a

whole

currently these are genocide crimes

against humanity

war crimes and more recently added the

crime of aggression

now we know because now we can plainly

see

that there are in reality deeply serious

consequences

to destroying ecosystems we’re seeing

these consequences playing out in ever

more apocalyptic ways

fires floods droughts

hurricanes poisoned water

depleted soils contaminated air

multiple crises that are leading us and

in some cases taking us already over

tipping points that threaten the entire

existence of human civilization as we

know it

while extinguishing species at an

unprecedented rate

so in reality ecocide already is

a crime of most serious concern to the

international community as a whole

it simply isn’t listed on that statute

not yet but i’ll tell you something

exciting and it’s this

the amendment process for the rome

statute

is actually quite simple any member

state can propose it

a simple majority can put it on the

table for discussion

for adoption into the statute two-thirds

of member states must agree to the

amendment

now the icc is a one-state one-vote

forum

like the united nations but unlike the

un there is no security council

no state has the power to veto an

amendment

so once it’s on the table it’s simply a

matter of time

to accumulate the collective support

once it’s on the table the writing is on

the wall

and the process of amendment itself

creates

a kind of compliance period

so the law may not yet be in place but

we can all see it coming

investors insurers ceos and policy

makers all know

that drastic changes are required if

humanity is to thrive into the future

ecocide law is the simple course

correction

that can support those changes

it can level the corporate playing field

enabling the many solutions that are out

there

from regenerative farming to renewable

energy to circular economy

to truly begin to engage while giving

bad actors the guard rail they need

to guide them back towards safe

practices

and as every entrepreneur knows there is

nothing like a clear parameter

for unleashing innovation and creativity

all of this my dear friend polly higgins

saw clearly

and the campaign we started together

stop ecoside international

focuses exclusively on helping to make

this happen

it’s a funny thing when polly was

diagnosed with terminal cancer

we received many hundreds of messages

often sad and shocked and wondering what

would happen to the work if she died

would it die with her but in fact

when it came to it the reality was quite

the reverse

because when polly departed i started to

receive a new kind of message

how can we help you make sure

this happens people started stepping up

in support and it

is happening over the last two years

i’ve realized and discovered just how

many dots

were waiting to be joined with campaigns

elsewhere

with international criminal lawyers with

politicians

diplomats faith leaders and influencers

in november 2019 pope francis called for

ecocide to be made an international

crime

the following month small island states

perhaps i should say great ocean states

vanuatu and the maldives

called on icc member states to seriously

consider amending the rome statute to

include ecocide

president macron of france and the new

belgium government have declared their

support

and parliamentary motions have been

submitted in sweden

in spain the government has been asked

by its foreign affairs committee

to examine legislating for ecocide

nationally and

internationally finland canada

and luxembourg have all expressed

interest and the eu

has voted to encourage its member states

to recognize ecocide

our foundation has now convened a panel

of top international criminal lawyers to

draft a robust

legal definition of ecocide that can be

considered for proposal at the icc by

interested states

and we’re already in dialogue with

parliamentarians from an additional 12

countries who are eagerly awaiting the

resulting definition

we have campaign teams and associate

groups in 14 countries

and websites in nine languages but

ultimately

it’s about more than just our particular

campaign

it’s about a global conversation

and fundamentally it’s about a concept

this relatively new word ecocide

that encapsulates something the terrible

extent

of damage that we can all perceive to be

happening to the natural living world

all around us in many different ways

and the moment we understand the word we

intuitively know it to be both dangerous

and morally wrong

it is a small but essential step

to go from acknowledging that

understanding

to calling for it to be reflected in law

and together we can all take

that step and as every one of us

amplifies this conversation we actually

make

ecocide law inevitable we make it

inevitable

because it’s such a foundational and

obvious law

to put in place it protects everything

we love

everything we hold dear and everything

that sustains us

it protects the future of life on earth

thank you

you