When it comes to international attention for climate change, the year 2024 will end with a bang. Merely a week after the end of the UN Climate Change Conference in Azerbaijan, key stakeholders will meet again at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague for a much awaited hearings on the obligations of States in respect of climate change.

Recent years have seen an increase in not only climate-related court cases, but also a deeper engagement of legal scholars and judicial bodies with matters related to the environment more generally. We have seen children, elderly women, and non-governmental organizations go to court to bring about enhanced climate action. We have seen the UN General Assembly (UNGA) recognize the human right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment. We have also seen nature rights laws passed in various jurisdictions around the globe. Most recently, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) confirmed that States have to prevent, reduce, and control marine pollution from greenhouse gas emissions and protect and preserve the marine environment from climate change impacts and ocean acidification. Another advisory opinion is pending at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) on the individual and collective obligations of States to respond to the climate emergency within the framework of international human rights law and specifically under the American Convention on Human Rights and other inter-American treaties.

The ICJ, which is the only court with both general and universal jurisdiction, is expected to further clarify States’ obligations. A Vanuatu-led initiative managed to gather enough support from Member States for the UNGA to adopt a resolution in 2023, which requests the ICJ to clarify:

• 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; and
• 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; and
  • peoples and individuals of the present and future generations affected by the adverse effects of climate change.

All UN Member States were entitled to participate in the proceedings. A number of organizations, including the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), were also authorized to participate. A total of 91 written statements and 62 written comments have been filed with the Court’s registry. More than 100 oral statements were made at the hearing.  

The public hearings began on 2 December 2024. The oral proceedings provided an opportunity for States and organizations to further elaborate on their written submissions and respond to questions from the Court. With the written and oral proceedings concluded, the Court has now retired to begin its deliberations, following which it will deliver its advisory opinion in open court. This is expected to occur in early 2025.

Even though the Court’s advisory opinions are not legally binding, as the principal judicial body of the United Nations, the ICJ’s assessment will provide authoritative guidance on the nature and scope of States’ obligations in respect of climate change under international law. It will provide a clear legal benchmark—including with regard to the rights of future generations—that that will feed into national and regional court cases and the UN climate negotiations.