| Tue May. 24, 2011 10:00 AM PDT
The Prunéřov Power Station in Bohemia, Czech Republic The Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), an island nation scattered across the Pacific north of New Guinea, has already had to confront the tides of climate change, which have eaten away at its coasts and left its food and water security in shambles. When leaders in FSM heard that the Czech Republic planned to extend the license on its biggest polluter, the Prunéřov power station, they decided that a coal plant halfway across the world had everything to do with their fragile island country's health. In January of 2010, FSM legally intervened in the extension of the plant by calling for a Transboundary Environmental Impact Assessment, which required the Czech government to take into account the environmental impact upon another territory when deciding whether to approve the project.
While it's common for neighboring states to call for assessment impacts, FSM's action marked the first time a transboundary country—a non-neighboring nation—attempted to intervene in a project. FSM, Greenpeace, and the Environmental Law Service presented the legal theory behind their precedent-setting move this week at the Threatened Island Nations Conference in New York in hopes of inspiring other nations to take a more proactive stance. (You can see the video stream of the conference here.) "Vulnerable nations have long been the moral voice on climate change, now they have a legal one too," said Jasper Teulings, General Counsel at Greenpeace International. "Governments and corporations need to accept that it is indefensible to pursue dirty energy, when a clean and secure future powered by renewable energy is achievable now."
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