ABSTRACT

The issue of climate change has pushed accountability for environmental damage to the top of the international agenda. However, international criminal law does not attempt to attach criminal liability to environmental damage at present. Although the number of areas of international law concerned with environmental issues has grown significantly over the past three to four decades2, space has yet to be made within the framework of international criminal law for ‘environmental crimes’. While there is some scope at the International Criminal Court for accountability to attach to situations of environmental harm, there is indeed still considerable debate as to whether criminal sanctions are an appropriate form of responsibility for environmental damage at all.3