Global experts unite at COP28 to grant the world's greatest deep freeze far-reaching rights equal to humans.

If Antarctica had a voice, what would it say to oil boss and COP28 President Sultan Al Jaber, who told Mary Robinson, a climate advocate and Ireland's former president, that there was "no science" to phasing out fossil fuels "to achieve 1.5C"?

One's imagination can run wild. Yet, the cold, hard truth is that Antarctica lacks a sovereign voice in decision-making that impacts its fate, say 25 polar and environmental experts who have launched a campaign at COP28 to act as the icy region's legal eagle.

The prominent South African lawyer Cormac Cullinan of Cullinan & Associates and the Wild Law Institute is one of the campaign brains. Cullinan's landmark action helped suspend Shell's seismic surveys off the Eastern Cape Wild Coast last year.

And one only needs to look at 2023, a polar annus horribilis, to understand why the initiative may be overdue:

This year, we learnt from frontline scientists that sea-ice lows may have hit a new normal. With business-as-usual, Antarctic currents would likely weaken within 30 years, damaging marine ecosystems across the planet.The region -- famously Earth's coldest, highest, driest and windiest -- faces intensifying geopolitical interests and commercial exploitation.And, as...