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President of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) Yuji Iwasawa (centre) and members issue their first advisory opinion on states\u2019 legal obligations to address climate change, The Hague, the Netherlands, July 23, 2025 [AFP]<\/p>\nThe United Nations\u2019 highest court has said that countries must meet their climate obligations \u2013 and that failing to do so could violate international law, potentially opening the door for affected nations to seek reparations in future legal cases.<\/p>\n
In a groundbreaking advisory opinion delivered at the Peace Palace in The Hague on Wednesday, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) said states must act urgently to address the \u201cexistential threat\u201d of climate change by cooperating to cut emissions, following through on global climate agreements, and protecting vulnerable populations and ecosystems from harm.<\/p>\n
Reading the opinion, ICJ President Yuji Iwasawa said that greenhouse gas emissions are \u201cunequivocally caused by human activities\u201d and have cross-border effects.<\/p>\n
\u201cFailure of a state to take appropriate action to protect the climate system \u2026 may constitute an internationally wrongful act,\u201d Iwasawa said. He called the climate crisis \u201can existential problem of planetary proportions that imperils all forms of life and the very health of our planet\u201d.<\/p>\n
Notably, the court said a \u201cclean, healthy and sustainable environment\u201d is a human right. That paves the way for other legal actions, including states returning to the ICJ to hold each other to account as well as domestic lawsuits.<\/p>\n
While the ICJ\u2019s ruling is not binding, it said that countries themselves have an obligation to take binding measures to comply with climate treaties. But crucially, the ICJ said industrialised nations have a legal obligation to take the lead in combating climate change, due to their greater historical responsibility for emissions.<\/p>\n
The judges also affirmed that countries that signed the 2015 Paris Agreement must ensure their nationally determined contributions (NDCs), their individual national climate plans, are \u201cprogressive\u201d and reflect the \u201chighest possible ambition,\u201d in line with the treaty\u2019s aim to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit).<\/p>\n
The opinion was immediately welcomed by environmental groups.\u00a0Oxfam climate change policy lead Nafkote Dabi said: \u201cThis ruling elevates national climate commitments everywhere by confirming that countries must reduce emissions enough to protect the universal rights to life, food, health and a clean environment.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll countries, particularly rich ones, now have to cut their emissions faster and phase out fossil fuels. Rich countries have to increase their financing to Global South countries to help them reduce emissions and protect their people from past and future harm. This is not a wish list \u2013 it is international law.\u201d<\/p>\n
Danilo Garrido, legal counsel at Greenpeace International, said the opinion marked the \u201cstart of a new era of climate accountability at a global level\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe message of the court is clear: the production, consumption and granting of licences and subsidies for fossil fuels could be breaches of international law,\u201d he said. \u201cPolluters must stop emitting and must pay for the harms they have caused.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two fundamental questions<\/p>\n
After years of lobbying by vulnerable island nations fearing they could be submerged under rising sea waters, the United Nations General Assembly asked the ICJ in 2023 for an advisory opinion, a nonbinding but important basis for international obligations.<\/p>\n
The landmark opinion of the 15 judges of the ICJ \u2013 who all voted unanimously in favour of the opinion \u2013 will carry legal and political weight and is likely to determine the course of future climate action across the world, including whether polluters should be made to pay for their actions.<\/p>\n
President of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) Yuji Iwasawa (centre) and members issue their first advisory opinion on states\u2019 legal obligations to address climate change, The Hague, the Netherlands, July 23, 2025 [AFP]<\/p>\n