Triodos Bank calls for introduction of crime of ecocide at the International Criminal Court
In a press release issued during COP15, the UN Biodiversity Conference taking place in Montréal, Triodos Bank has called for ambitious biodiversity targets and for the introduction of a new crime of ecocide at the International Criminal Court (ICC). Triodos has also signed Stop Ecocide International’s Business Open Letter urging governments to support the recognition of ecocide at the ICC and to engage positively in the growing global conversation to make this a reality. They also note that there is currently an opportunity to include ecocide in the EU Environmental Crime Directive.
In its release Triodos says: “It is essential to address the underlying political, economic and cultural drivers of biodiversity loss, mechanisms that encourage an extractive use of resources and a detrimental relationship with nature. To make this shift, Triodos Bank is supportive of introducing ecocide at the International Criminal Court.”
Triodos joins a growing number of businesses and corporations calling for the criminalisation of acts wantonly or illegally causing severe and either widespread or long-term damage to the environment - ecocide.