CAMPAIGNERS from across the world have demanded a law to protect the planet from ecocide.

The need for such legislation was discussed by legal experts today as the second week of the Cop26 climate conference continued in Glasgow.

The event at the Green Party Hub, chaired by Green peer Natalie Bennett, heard calls for the passage of laws at the British, EU and international level to prevent corporations and governments causing further damage to the global environment. 

Members of the Ecocide Alliance, which launched over a year ago, said that climate change was itself a form of ecocide, with just a few companies and organisations responsible for most pollution. 

French lawyer and MEP Marie Toussaint said: “What we need to do is prevent them from continuing to release fossil fuels into the atmosphere and hold them accountable for their actions. To do this, an ecocide law is one of the best tools we have.”

She said that there would be an opportunity in the coming months to bring about legislative change in the European Union. 

Stop Ecocide International executive director Jojo Meht called a legal duty of care for the Earth to be created, including the criminalisation of the mass destruction of nature, which would be enforceable by the International Criminal Court along with genocide and other grave crimes. 

She said that momentum and collaboration between states was needed to bring about this change as the world faces the existential crisis of the climate emergency. 

This would also stop transnational corporations avoiding penalties, Ms Meht added, as well as change the mindset that separates the fate of humans from the natural world.