“Countries must protect human right to a stable climate, court rules”, 3 July 2025

There is a human right to a stable climate and states have a duty to protect it, a top court has ruled…

In the strongly worded and wide-ranging 300-page document setting out its perspective on the climate emergency and human rights, the court says states have legal obligations to protect people alive today and future generations from the impacts of climate breakdown. That includes taking “urgent and effective” actions to cut greenhouse gas emissions based on the best available science, to adapt, to cooperate internationally, and to guard against the threat of climate disinformation…

The court affirmed the right to a healthy environment, and said for the first time that this includes the right to a stable climate.

This means states have legal obligations to regulate emissions from public and private organisations.

The court says all businesses have a responsibility not to harm human rights but those that have emitted huge volumes of greenhouse gas emissions in the past or present have a particular responsibility... It singles out the exploration, extraction, transportation and processing of fossil fuels, cement manufacturing and agro-industry.

States must set tougher requirements for such sectors, it says, suggesting changes to business operating conditions, taxation, contributions to just transition plans and strategies, investment in education, adaptation measures and addressing loss and damage…

It adds that states should pass laws so that transnational corporations and conglomerates can be fully held to account for the emissions of their subsidiaries.

States also have a duty to ensure a fair transition to a cleaner society, and must ensure that this does not in itself involve breaching human rights, for example, when mining for critical minerals needed for electric vehicles…