The islands of Vanuatu, Fiji, and Samoa proposed a huge change to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to recognize ecocide as a crime, allowing the prosecution of those responsible for significant environmental damage.
If successful, the change would recognize ecocide as a crime alongside genocide and war crimes. 
The Guardian he says:
The islands of Vanuatu, Fiji, and Samoa proposed formal recognition by an international court of the crime of ecocide. Ecocide is defined as "unlawful or wanton acts committed with knowledge that there is a significant possibility of causing serious and either extensive or long-term damage to the environment".
The motion was filed before the ICC in New York on Monday afternoon and should be fully discussed at a later date. Negotiating the proposal is a process that is likely to take years and face strong backlash, with most happening behind the scenes as most countries are reluctant to speak out against it.
Philippe Sands KC, a prominent international lawyer and professor of law at University College London, acted as chair of the independent expert panel on the legal definition of ecocide, convened by the Stop Ecocide Foundation. He even told the Guardian that he is "100% sure" that ecocide will eventually be recognized by the court. "The only question is when," he said.
"I was skeptical at first, but now I'm a big believer. There has already been real change, as some countries have put it into domestic law. I think this is the right idea at the right time.”
Belgium recently made ecocide a crime and the EU changed some of its international crime guidelines to include it as a "special" offence. Mexico is also considering something like this. [...]
It took years to get to the point where the ICC was preparing to consider the proposal. Stop Ecocide International has been campaigning on the issue since 2017, and the island of Vanuatu made the first appeal for recognition of the crime by the ICC in 2019.
While it could take up to a decade from now for someone to be charged with ecocide, even if the changes are implemented by the ICC, the proposal filed on Monday was crucial to gaining wider acceptance of the idea, according to Jojo Mehta, co-founder of the group Stop Ecocide International.
