World Court’s Landmark Climate Opinion Demands Bold and Collective Action from Governments
July 23, 2025
THE HAGUE — Today’s Advisory Opinion is a landmark step forward in clarifying what international law requires of States in the face of the climate emergency. The Court leaves no doubt: governments have legal obligations to take far more ambitious, immediate, and collective measures to confront climate change and the significant harm done by human activities to the climate system and the environment, for present and future generations. It underlined that the impacts of climate change significantly imperil certain human rights, including the right to life.
The Court confirmed that climate change is an “urgent and existential threat” and that we must keep global temperature within 1.5C from pre-industrial levels. The climate crisis is no longer a distant threat, it’s a present reality—seas swell higher, storms grow stronger, and heatwaves strike harder. The burden falls heaviest on those who have contributed the least—especially communities in the Global South, and in particular, women and girls. Wealthy countries and major emitters must meet their obligations, including delivering climate finance for adaptation and mitigation, and addressing loss and damage, and fulfill their historical responsibilities.
The Global North’s failure to meaningfully address the climate crisis—let alone halt it—is a tragedy of global consequences. The ICJ’s advisory opinion, though nonbinding, carries substantial legal and political weight as it applies binding international law, which countries have already committed to. Thus, the opinion, reached unanimously, will help boosting climate accountability lawsuits and reinforce the Paris Agreement framework by setting a powerful precedent grounded in urgency, ambition, and equity.
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Press contact:
Monica Ellena – CARE Climate Justice Center – Global Communication Lead
ellena@careinternational.org
Note to Editors
- CARE’s climate change experts are available for interviews.
- Hollow Commitments 2025, CARE Denmark’s report on wealthy countries’ failure to live up to their climate finance commitments is available here. The press release with key findings can be found here.
About CARE International
Founded in 1945 with the creation of the CARE Package®, CARE International is a leading humanitarian and development organization fighting global poverty. In 2002, CARE Bangladesh launched the first specific community-based climate adaptation project, aimed at reducing vulnerability to climate change-related disasters. Since then, our engagement has grown and in 2024, CARE International and its partners implemented 273 projects across 61 countries, reaching 4.5 million poor and marginalized people—particularly women and girls—to strengthen their resilience and adaptive capacities to the effects of climate change.
About CARE Climate Justice Center
The CARE Climate Justice Center (CJC) leads and coordinates the integration of climate justice and resilience across CARE International’s development and humanitarian work. The CJC is an initiative powered by CARE Denmark, CARE France, CARE Germany, CARE Netherlands, and CARE International UK. To learn more, visit www.careclimatechange.org
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Download a copy of the CJC Statement here
World Court’s Landmark Climate Opinion Demands Bold and Collective Action From Governments