The lawyer for a man seeking refugee status on the basis of climate change says the world is facing an emergency and it's starting in the South Pacific.
Earlier court appeals have failed but now he's taking the fight to the Supreme Court.
Iaone Teitiota and his family fled the low-lying Pacific island of Kiribati eight years ago. He's an overstayer but his lawyer claims the effects of climate change should entitle him to refugee status.
"Our argument is basically that he is being persecuted indirectly with the inability of the industrialised world to ameliorate CO2 emissions," says lawyer Michael Kidd.
That's destroying the habitat and lives of those who live on Kiribati.
"Fresh water's being polluted by human excrement, drought, high temperature, flooding; two-thirds of the coconut trees have died," says Mr Kidd.
The Refugee Council says over the next 10 years 150,000 people may be affected by rising seas, loss of arable land and contamination of fresh water and that the International Refugee Convention, signed by many countries, including New Zealand, is inadequate.
"It was written in 1951, more than 60 years ago, and it was written for specific political refugees from persecution, never envisaging any possibility of climate change," says Refugee Council spokesman Gary Poole.
Mr Poole says New Zealand now has a unique chance, with a seat on the UN Security Council, to develop protocols to address the problem of climate change evacuees.
Mr Teitiota's lawyer says his case is the only one of its kind currently before the New Zealand courts. He hopes it will be heard by the Supreme Court within the next few weeks.
3 News
source: newshub archive
