The International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued a unanimous opinion on July 23, 2025, that climate change is “an existential problem of planetary proportions that imperils all forms of life and the very health of our planet.”
The long-awaited Advisory Opinion on the Obligations of States in respect of Climate Change is a milestone. The decision comes after five years of tireless campaigning by youth advocates—led by the Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change and World’s Youth for Climate Justice—and diplomatic efforts led by Vanuatu. Back in 2022, Human Rights Watch joined 220 other civil society organizations calling on states to support the advisory opinion request before the United Nations General Assembly, which passed in 2023.
The court heard legal arguments from nearly 100 countries and international organizations before answering the two questions posed by the General Assembly: what are the obligations of states under international law with respect to climate change, and what are the legal consequences when such duties are breached and cause harm to people and states?
The court said that climate change’s impacts on human rights require “mitigation and adaptation measures, with due account given to the protection of human rights, the adoption of standards and legislation, and the regulation of the activities of private actors.”
The court also ruled that failure of a state to take appropriate action to protect the climate system from emissions—like fossil fuel production, consumption, exploration or the provision subsidies—may violate international law. Human Rights Watch has documented how fossil fuel production harms the rights of communities adjacent to fossil fuel infrastructure.
The court also acknowledged that “conditions resulting from climate change which are likely to endanger the lives of individuals may lead them to seek safety in another country or prevent them from returning to their own,” urging countries to avoid sending individuals back to their country of origin in such circumstances.
And the court concluded that countries’ failure to protect the climate system triggers legal consequences, including revoking all measures contributing to climate harm.
States should now revise their national commitments on greenhouse gas emissions to collectively stay under the limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius of additional warming established by the Paris Agreement. Human Rights Watch will continue to push countries to commit to ambitious climate plans and a fossil fuel phaseout.