Top emitter China tells World Court that UN treaties cover states' climate obligations

THE HAGUE (Reuters) - China told the top U.N. court on Tuesday that existing U.N. treaties should provide the basis for its advisory opinion on states' legal obligations to fight global warming and address the consequences of their historic contributions to it.

The U.N. General Assembly, after a campaign spearheaded by small island states, asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to issue an opinion on countries' legal responsibility for the negative impact of climate change. One of those states, Vanuatu, on Monday asked the court to recognise the harms climate change had caused and order reparations for its consequences.

China, one of the world's top two emitters of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming together with the U.S., said it understood the "enormous difficulties" faced by developing countries such as the small island states, which are vulnerable especially to rising sea levels and increasingly violent storms.

But Ma Xinmin, a legal advisor in China's foreign ministry, told the court that the existing treaties produced by U.N.-backed climate change negotiations, which include many non-binding provisions, should be the benchmark for determining states' obligations.

"China hopes that the court will uphold the U.N. climate change negotiations mechanism as the primary channel for global climate governance," Ma said.

While advisory opinions from the ICJ, often called the World Court, are not binding, they are legally and politically significant.

Experts say its eventual opinion on climate change will probably be cited in climate change-driven lawsuits in courts from Europe to Latin America and beyond.

Over a hundred states and organisations will give their views in the coming weeks. The United States is due to address the court on Wednesday. The court's opinion is expected to be delivered in 2025.

(Reporting by Stephanie van den Berg; Editing by Kevin Liffey)