{"id":3283,"date":"2025-07-23T17:45:40","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T17:45:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/world-court-declares-climate-change-an-existential-threat-in-historic-ruling\/"},"modified":"2025-07-23T17:45:40","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T17:45:40","slug":"world-court-declares-climate-change-an-existential-threat-in-historic-ruling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/world-court-declares-climate-change-an-existential-threat-in-historic-ruling\/","title":{"rendered":"World Court declares climate change an ‘existential threat’ in historic ruling"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Dragon Bravo Fire burns on the northern rim as seen from Grandeur Point on the southern rim of Grand Canyon, Arizona, US, on July 14, 2025. — AFP <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The world’s top court on Wednesday began delivering a much-anticipated ruling laying out what legal obligations countries have to prevent climate change and whether polluters should pay up for the consequences.<\/p>\n

It is the biggest case ever heard at the International Court of Justice, and experts say the judges’ opinion could reshape climate justice, with major impacts on laws around the world.<\/p>\n

In opening remarks, ICJ president Yuji Iwasawa said the consequences of climate change “are severe and far-reaching: they affect both natural ecosystems and human populations”.<\/p>\n

“These consequences underscore the urgent and existential threat posed by climate change,” he said.<\/p>\n

The push for a court opinion was spearheaded by the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu amid growing frustration at sluggish progress in UN climate negotiations.<\/p>\n

Ralph Regenvanu, Vanuatu’s climate change minister, said the ICJ ruling could be a “game-changer” in the fight against global warming.<\/p>\n

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“We’ve been going through this for 30 years… It’ll shift the narrative, which is what we need to have,” Regenvanu told AFP<\/span>.<\/p>\n

The United Nations has tasked the 15 judges at the ICJ, a UN court that adjudicates disputes between nations, to answer two fundamental questions.<\/p>\n

First: What must states do under international law to protect the environment from greenhouse gas emissions “for present and future generations”?<\/p>\n

Second: What are the consequences for states whose emissions have caused environmental harm, especially to vulnerable low-lying island states?<\/p>\n

ICJ advisory opinions are not binding upon states, and critics say that top polluters will simply ignore what comes out of the court.<\/p>\n

But others note the moral and legal clout enjoyed by the world’s highest court and hope the opinion will make a tangible difference to national climate change policies and ongoing legal battles.<\/p>\n

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Andrew Raine, deputy director of the UN Environment Programme’s law division, said the ICJ should “clarify how international law applies to the climate crisis.”<\/p>\n

“And that has ripple effects across national courts, legislative processes, and public debates,” he told AFP<\/span>.<\/p>\n

To help answer the two questions, ICJ judges have pored over tens of thousands of pages of submissions from countries and organisations around the world.<\/p>\n

Analysts say Wednesday’s ruling is the most consequential of a string of recent rulings on climate change in international law as courts become a battleground for climate action.<\/p>\n

Outside the court in the Hague, about a hundred demonstrators waved flags and posters bearing slogans like “No more delay, climate justice today”.<\/p>\n

Those bringing the cases are often from climate-vulnerable communities and countries, alarmed by the pace of progress toward curbing planet-warming pollution from fossil fuels.<\/p>\n

The Paris Agreement, struck through the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), has rallied a global response to the crisis, but not at the speed necessary to protect the world from dangerous overheating.<\/p>\n

‘Disappear beneath the waves’<\/span><\/h3>\n

In December, the iconic Peace Palace in the Hague hosted the court’s biggest-ever hearings, with more than 100 nations and groups giving oral statements.<\/p>\n

In what was billed as a “David Vs Goliath” battle, the debate pitted major wealthy economies against the smaller, less developed states most at the mercy of a warming planet.<\/p>\n

Major polluters, including the US and India, warned the ICJ not to deliver a fresh legal blueprint for climate change, arguing the existing UNFCCC sufficed.<\/p>\n

The US, which has since withdrawn from the Paris accord, said the UNFCCC contained legal provisions on climate change and urged the court to uphold this regime.<\/p>\n

But smaller states said this framework was inadequate to mitigate climate change’s devastating effects and that the ICJ’s opinion should be broader.<\/p>\n

These states also urged the ICJ to impose reparations on historic polluters.<\/p>\n

“The cardinal principle is crystal clear. Responsible states are required to make full reparation for the injury they have caused,” said Margaretha Wewerinke-Singh representing Vanuatu.<\/p>\n

These states demanded a commitment and timeline to phasing out fossil fuels, monetary compensation when appropriate, and an acknowledgement of past wrongs.<\/p>\n

Representatives from island states, many wearing traditional dress as they addressed the court for the first time in their country’s history, made passionate pleas to the robed judges.<\/p>\n

“Despite producing less than 0.01% of greenhouse gas emissions, on the current trajectory of GHG emissions, Tuvalu will disappear completely beneath the waves that have been lapping our shores for millennia,” said Eselealofa Apinelu from Tuvalu.<\/p>\n

Vishal Prasad, director of a campaign by Pacific Island students that pushed the issue before the court, said climate change will become “catastrophic as the years go by, if we do not course-correct.”<\/p>\n

“The urgency of the matter, the seriousness of why we’re here, and how important this is, is not lost upon all Pacific Islanders, all small island countries,” he told AFP<\/em> “That’s why we’re looking to the ICJ.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/sub><\/p>\n

World Court declares climate change an ‘existential threat’ in historic ruling<\/div>\n

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The Dragon Bravo Fire burns on the northern rim as seen from Grandeur Point on the southern rim of Grand Canyon, Arizona, US, on July 14, 2025. — AFP  The world’s top court on Wednesday began delivering a much-anticipated ruling laying out what legal obligations countries have to prevent climate change and whether polluters should…<\/p>\n

Read More “World Court declares climate change an ‘existential threat’ in historic ruling”<\/span> »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3284,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}