"UN’s top court says failing to protect planet from climate change could violate international law", 24 July 2025

The United Nations’ top court in a landmark advisory opinion said countries could be in violation of international law if they fail to take measures to protect the planet from climate change, and nations harmed by its effects could be entitled to reparations...

“Failure of a state to take appropriate action to protect the climate system ... may constitute an internationally wrongful act,” court President Yuji Iwasawa said during the hearing. He called the climate crisis “an existential problem of planetary proportions that imperils all forms of life and the very health of our planet.”...

Notably, the court said a “clean, healthy and sustainable environment” 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, along with legal instruments like investment agreements...

“Today, the tables have turned. The world’s highest court provided us with a powerful new tool to protect people from the devastating impacts of the climate crisis — and to deliver justice for the harm their emissions have already caused,” former U.N. human rights chief Mary Robinson said in a statement...

Simply having the U.N. court issue an opinion is the latest in a series of legal victories for the small island nations. Earlier this month, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights found that countries have a legal duty not only to avoid environmental harm but also to protect and restore ecosystems. Last year, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that countries must better protect their people from the consequences of climate change...

The presiding judge on Wednesday acknowledged that international law had “an important but ultimately limited role in resolving this problem,” and said a lasting solution will need the contribution of all fields of human knowledge “to secure a future for ourselves and those who are yet to come.”