Philippe Sands KC in the council chamber on Monday evening

AN eminent lawyer appeared in the Town Hall chamber on Monday in support of motion calling on “ecocide” to be recognised as a crime.

Philippe Sands KC said that although Camden had no power in deciding international law, the council was sending out a strong message which others might follow.

He wants “ecocide” to have a globally recognised definition in the same way genocide and war crimes do in the Rome Statute. Mr Sands KC, a lifelong Camden resident, said that current international laws “focus on the well-being of human beings, but in the past 40 to 50 years we’ve come to understand the vital importance of the protection of the environment”.

He has co-chaired a working group on the definition of “ecocide”: anybody found guilty would have allowed a “wanton act” knowing there was a “substantial likelihood of severe widespread or long term damage to the environment”.

Mr Sands KC said:  “I’ll be clear that this aims at the international level, to my mind it is unimaginable that Camden would be responsible for genocide, as for ecocide. “The motion is really to push international consciousness: act global, think local.”

He told councillors: “It is not a left/right issue but it is an issue that young people are incredibly attached to. For the first time ever, my three children simultaneously sent me a message on WhatsApp which said: ‘Dad, at last you’re doing something useful’.”

Cllr Nina de Ayala Parker

Labour councillor Nina de Ayala Parker, who seconded the motion in the chamber, said: “Criminalising ecocide would give everyone on this planet the ability to hold companies and governments to account for environmental atrocities.”

She said more species were dying out than in the time of the dinosaurs, adding: “In a world where ecocide is a crime, not species, but exploitative, profit-driven fossil fuel energy companies will become extinct.”

Camden is the first council in the country to pass a motion supporting a definition of ecocide and declaring it should be included in international law. It received full support across the council chamber.

Mr Sands said afterwards: “That the vote was unanimous, a rare consensus across the political spectrum, speaks volumes. “This was a vote for the environment, for the young, for our own survival as a species. It was a vote for future generations and for hope.”