World Court Says Countries Must Cooperate on Climate Change

The United Nations' highest court made a ruling Wednesday about climate change. The court called it a threat to humanity. Judges said that countries must cooperate to cut carbon emissions that fuel global warming.

Yuji Iwasawa is the International Court of Justice's (ICJ) president. He is one of the court's 15 judges. They said countries had to comply with the strict rules placed on them by climate treaties they might have signed. Failure to do so would break international laws, the judges said.

"States must cooperate" to hit lower carbon targets, Iwasawa added.

It is not clear what effect the ruling might have. But legal experts told Reuters that international judges would be unable to ignore it.

Sebastien Duyck is an attorney. He works at the Center For International Environmental Law. He said nations like China and the US certainly could be sued in the ICJ. "If states have legal duties to prevent climate harm, then victims of that harm have a right to redress," he told Reuters. China and the US are the two biggest carbon emitting nations in the world.

Smaller nations praised the ICJ's findings. The rulings could call for compensation to those nations. However, it’s uncertain if major UN-member nations are willing to pay.

Many of those poorer nations are in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific. They have been hit with floods, droughts, and other disasters that scientists say happen as a result of climate change. Yet those countries burn far fewer fossil fuels. Thus, they contribute much less to the climate disasters that affect them.

Leaders of smaller nations argued that paying them for the hardship they have faced is a human rights issue. The ICJ seems to agree.

Photo of the Dragon Bravo Fire in the Grand Canyon from Reuters.

Thought Question: What’s a problem in the world that you think people should work together to solve, and why is it important to you?