New York: A tiny Pacific Island nation has pulled off the kind of diplomatic win that can elude global superpowers.

On Wednesday, US time, Vanuatu, population 300,000, rallied a majority of countries to ask the world’s highest court to weigh in on a high-stakes question: can countries be sued under international law for failing to slow down climate change?

The measure passed by consensus, meaning none of the 193 member states requested a vote. The General Assembly hall erupted in applause.

That it was adopted by consensus reflects widespread frustration over the fact that the greenhouse gas emissions warming the planet and wreaking havoc on the poorest nations are not being reduced quickly enough.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the move “would assist the General Assembly, the UN and member states to take the bolder and stronger climate action that our world so desperately needs”.

In essence, with this resolution, the world’s nations are asking the International Court of Justice, based in The Hague, to issue an opinion on whether governments have “legal obligations” to protect people from climate hazards and, more crucially, whether failure to meet those obligations could bring “legal consequences”.

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The international court’s opinion would not be binding. But, depending on what it says, it could potentially turn the voluntary pledges that every country has made under the Paris climate accord into legal obligations under a range of existing international statutes, such as those on the rights of children or the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. That could, in turn, lay the groundwork for new legal claims.

A few national courts have already relied in part on international law to rule in favour of climate activists’ lawsuits. Last week, a court cleared the way for a youth-led group of activists, including Greta Thunberg, to sue the Swedish state for not doing enough to slow climate change.