THE HAGUE (Dispatches) - The United Nations’ highest court on Wednesday said countries need to meet their climate obligations and not doing so could pave the way for other states affected by climate change to seek reparations in litigation in specific cases.
The World Court in The Hague said countries have an obligation to take binding measures to comply to climate treaties and that industrialized nations have an obligation to take the lead in combating climate change.
Greece and the wider Balkans sweltered under the third heatwave of the summer on Tuesday, with laborers barred from work, tourists kept away from the ruins and firefighters battling blazes scattered across the arid countryside.
Couriers, food delivery riders and builders in and around Athens and other regions were ordered to pause work from midday until 5 p.m., as the temperature was expected to climb as high as 43 degrees Celsius (109.4 F), the labor ministry said.
In the Feneo area in Corinth in southern Greece, 185 firefighters with 50 vehicles were combating a strong forest fire, helped by 15 planes and 11 helicopters.
Two villages there were evacuated out of precaution as the fire raged. The governor of the surrounding Peloponnese region, Dimitris Ptochos, said the situation was difficult, local media reported.
Greece has long been known for the hot, sunny summers that attract tens of millions of tourists every year. But climate change has led to longer and more severe heatwaves, as well as destructive floods and wildfires.
Authorities said they would shut the ancient Acropolis ruins, Greece’s most-visited tourist site atop a rocky hill above Athens, for five hours from midday on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Matthew Enos, an 18-year-old visitor from New Orleans, said he had not been prepared for such a heatwave when he arrived in the capital.
“It’s been a little tough so far. Not the greatest feeling ever,” he said. “So I’ve just been adapting by drinking lots and lots of water.”
Tourists sought out air-conditioned restaurants and stores in Athens, one of the most densely populated capitals in Europe, which bakes on a plain flanked by mountains. The heatwave will continue until Sunday, the Greek meteorological service said.