CCJ President proposes int’l climate injuries compensation fund

Last Updated on Tuesday, 17 March 2026, 21:38 by Writer

The President of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), Winston Anderson has proposed the establishment of an International Climate Injuries Compensation (ICIC) Fund, funded by corporate actors, to provide compensation for damage and harm resulting from extraordinary weather events.

Justice Anderson presented the proposal while speaking at the Inter-American Seminar on Climate Emergency and Human Rights: Different Perspectives, held in Brasilia, Brazil on March 16.

The seminar was hosted by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) and the Supreme Court of Brazil at the start of the 187th Ordinary Session of the Inter-American Court.

The seminar was convened to discuss the implications of the Inter-American Court’s Advisory Opinion No.32 of 2025 on Climate Emergency and Human Rights.

While accepting that the Advisory Opinion established concrete obligations for governments to regulate companies and businesses that contribute to the climate crisis, a regime which implies guaranteeing the right to a healthy climate as part of the right to a healthy environment, the CCJ Anderson was of the view that establishment of this normative framework was not enough.

He emphasised that more was required at a practical level to ensure that small vulnerable countries in the Caribbean and in other regions of the world receive urgent assistance to recover from destruction caused by extraordinary weather events, like that of Hurricane Melissa in October 2025.

Justice Anderson reportedly acknowledged the existence of the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD) established by the Conference of Parties (COP) to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, which was again discussed at COP30 held in Belém, Brazil, in November 2025.

However, he expressed disappointment with the lack of urgency in securing capitalisation of the FRLD and, that while Jamaica was actively engaging the FRLD, the maximum it could receive seemed to be about US$20M although that country had suffered some US$6-7B in damages.

The CCJ says the proposed alternative of the ICIC Fund model outlines that multinational corporations and businesses which contribute to greenhouse gas emissions above a certain threshold would be required to make mandatory contributions to the fund in the state in which they operate.

The Fund would have legal personality and could be sued in the country where the extraordinary weather event caused significant harm or damage.

Justice Anderson suggested that the Fund be established by a global convention, modelled on the International Maritime Organisation’s International Oil Pollution Compensation (IOPC) Funds, which provide compensation for oil pollution damage at sea, and is backed by shipowners of oil vessels.

Like the IOPC Funds, the ICIC Fund would be entirely consistent with the ‘Polluter Pays’ principle and with the customary law responsibility of states to ensure that economic activities in their countries do not cause environmental harm or damage in other countries.

The CCJ President first advocated the establishment of the ICIC Fund during his keynote address titled, “Transnational Actions in Reshaping Accountability for Climate Justice: A Caribbean Perspective” at the CANARI Partners Forum held in January 2026 in Barbados.