Jamaica should seek compensation from top polluters for Hurricane Melissa, says Golding

Opposition Leader Mark Golding has suggested that Jamaica assemble a team of its most experienced legal experts to prepare a brief on the prospects of recovering compensation for the massive loss and damage caused by Hurricane Melissa.

"As a major victim of the effects of climate disasters, Jamaica cannot remain docile and just passively assume a mountain of additional climate-related debt that will fetter and postpone our national development for decades to come," he said while making his contribution to the 2026-2027 Budget Debate in the House of Representatives on Tuesday. "Our country has a duty to lead in its advocacy for fair and just compensation from those states which have put us, and others like us, in this position of extreme vulnerability."

Golding said the legal brief should explore taking the matter to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), relying on the responsibility of certain countries for global temperature increases that contributed to the hurricane. The ICJ is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations.

A decision by the ICJ on the issue, Golding said, would be binding on the states found liable for the overheating that triggered the powerful storm.

Golding told his parliamentary colleagues that after the category five hurricane struck Jamaica in October, the ICJ issued a unanimous advisory judgment stating that states can be held liable for damages caused by climate change.

He argued that Jamaica, like many other small developing states, has been a minimal emitter of greenhouse gases, yet bears the pain of the irresponsible actions of larger states. “This is fundamentally unjust and unprincipled,” he said.

"A decision of the International Court of Justice on this issue would be binding on the States found to be liable for the overheating that triggered Hurricane Melissa. This decision, which would be of considerable economic value for Jamaica, may possibly be obtained pursuant to the contentious jurisdiction of the International Court."

The opposition leader also urged the Government to take a leadership role in encouraging the United Nations General Assembly to seek the ICJ’s opinion on the level of compensation major contributors to global overheating may be called upon to pay for losses caused to individual countries by changing weather patterns.

On the issue of loss and damage from global warming, Golding said the law and equity are on the side of small, developing states that have contributed minimally to the phenomenon.

“It is the states which are responsible for major fossil fuel emissions who are causing loss and damage from monster hurricanes such as Melissa. As these major states of emission have caused the damage, it is fitting that they should make reparation for it,” he said.

The hurricane killed at least 45 persons in ravaging much of western Jamaica. It has caused more than US$12 billion in damage, according to the latest assessment from the Planning Institute of Jamaica. It said it is more than 40 per cent of the country's GDP for 2024, making the hurricane the costliest disaster in Jamaica's history, with severe impacts on infrastructure, residential buildings, and agriculture.

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