ICJ holds states accountable in landmark climate ruling

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has ruled that the world’s governments must be held accountable for climate damage caused by fossil fuel production and consumption by ensuring they phase out fossil fuels, rapidly reduce their emissions, provide compensation to the countries facing climate disasters and provide climate finance to developing countries.

The landmark ruling was welcomed by many organisations, including Oxfam and Greenpeace, which have been campaigning for stricter climate action.

“The historic ruling from the world’s highest court could help bring justice to millions of people on the frontlines of the climate crisis,” said Mahealani Delaney, Pacific Campaigner at Greenpeace Australia Pacific. “Pacific students spearheaded this landmark climate justice campaign, rallying governments, civil society and communities around the world to fight for the future of their lands, cultures and right to self-determination — and won.”

The case began in 2019 when law students from Vanuatu, now known as the ‘Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change’, contacted ICJ for its opinion on the legal obligations of states to prevent climate change.

These questions included:

1. What are the obligations of states under international law to ensure the protection of the climate system and other parts of the environment from anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases for states and for present and future generations?
2. What are the legal consequences under these obligations for states where they, by their acts and omissions, have caused significant harm to the climate system and other parts of the environment, with respect to: 
   - states, including, in particular, small island developing states, which due to their geographical circumstances and level of development, are injured or specially affected by or are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change?
   - peoples and individuals of the present and future generations affected by the adverse effects of climate change?
    

The Vanuatu Government backed the students’ cause and provided diplomatic support, which led the UN General Assembly to take the case to ICJ in 2023.

More than 100 nations and groups, including Australia, provided thousands of submissions to the ICJ in December 2024, during the two-week hearing.

The ICJ then handed down its final decision on 23 July 2025 in The Hague, the Netherlands, in front of a packed courtroom. Many demonstrators waited outside with flags and posters and cheered when they heard the final result.

“Oxfam is proud to have supported young climate defenders from the Pacific and elsewhere who bravely took their fight for justice from a classroom in Vanuatu to the world’s highest court. They won the world a tremendous victory today,” said Oxfam Climate Change Policy Lead Nafkote Dabi.

“This 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.

“All 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 — it is international law.”

Professor Lavanya Rajamani — member of the Climate Crisis Advisory Group, expert in climate law and contributor to the Paris Agreement text — said that the ICJ’s Advisory Opinion on Climate Change is an extraordinary vindication for those who know all too well the global threat climate change poses to life, ecosystems and the health of the planet.

“UN climate negotiations have struggled over the last three decades to decisively address climate change — but the ICJ’s opinion will empower courts to hold states accountable for weak climate action, and support vulnerable countries in pushing for climate justice through lawsuits and negotiations,” Rajamani said.

Dabi said the agreement will benefit the negotiations at the next COP30 Summit.

“We now have a powerful tool for holding countries to account for their obligations, especially in protecting the world’s most marginalised people and future generations of humanity. The ICJ rejected arguments by the likes of the US and UK that governments are bound only by climate treaties such as the Paris Agreement and did not have stronger obligations under international law. This ruling will inject new impetus into negotiations at the COP30 Summit in Brazil this November.”

Delaney stated that although this is a step in the right direction, the fight for climate justice hasn’t ended.

“This advisory opinion comes at the midpoint in the critical decade for climate action globally, and as the world breached the critical 1.5°C threshold for the first time on record,” Delaney said.

“The government must make big coal, oil and gas corporations pay their fair share for the damage they are causing, and support communities harmed by climate-driven disasters. Pacific nations continue to lead the world in climate resistance — Australia must throw its support behind the Pacific, and make polluters pay for the climate destruction they cause.”

Vanuatu Women-Led Community Leader Flora Vano, whose testimony was submitted to the ICJ, said she finally feels there has been some justice.

“Tonight I’ll sleep easier. For the first time, it feels like justice is not just a dream but a direction,” she said. “The ICJ has recognised what we have lived through — our suffering, our resilience and our right to our future. This is a victory not just for us but for every frontline community fighting to be heard. Now, the world must act.”

Vanuatu will take ICJ’s Advisory Opinion on Climate Change back to the UN General Assembly to discuss implementing the Court’s findings. This will mean businesses around the world, including in Australia, will need to strictly meet emissions targets or potentially face serious legal consequences.

Image caption: Youth leaders and frontline communities demonstrate in front of the Peace Palace, the seat of the International Court of Justice. Image supplied by Greenpeace.