The Net Zero Emissions Accountability Act is adopted globally by 2025, putting strict limits in place on how much greenhouse gases can be released into the air every year.
The nations of the UN agree that the International Criminal Court should have power to fine and enforce sanctions on anyone who violates these laws.
Bold activists start putting together court cases arguing that historical emitters should pay reparations for loss and damage from climate change. The world declares that knowingly violating pollution laws is a crime against humanity, now called ecocide.
By 2029, the biggest emitters have more than halved how much they’re polluting the atmosphere, and some CEOs of large fossil-fuel companies have mysteriously gone into hiding. The air is much nicer to breathe all of a sudden, and three million children who would have died from air pollution every year get to grow up.
The word ecocide is an umbrella term for all forms of environmental destruction from deforestation to greenhouse gas emissions. For over 50 years, environmental advocates have championed the idea of creating an international ecocide law that would penalize individuals responsible for destroying the environment. Now in 2021, human-rights lawyers are drafting a definition of the law in the hopes of getting it adopted by the International Criminal Court.
