Climate solidarity is already a shared duty | Opinion

The recent advisory opinion of the United Nations International Court (TIJ) on Climate International Law marks a crucial moment for global action. For the first time, the highest UN Court has affirmed that states have the legal obligation to protect the environment against greenhouse gas emissions and that legal duty derives from both environmental law and international human rights treaties. The message is clear: not acting against climate change is no longer just political or moral irresponsibility; It is a violation of international law.

The Court’s decision has been adopted unanimously, something that has barely happened five times in the 80 years of history of this body. Nor had a similar level of participation in a procedure of the International Court of Justice, or its predecessor, the Permanent Court of International Justice.

This pronouncement is, therefore, historical and also arrives at a decisive moment. Climate emergency accelerates and its effects are increasingly evident: devastating fires, prolonged droughts, extreme heat waves, strong floods and loss of biodiversity. All this threatens lives, economies and, therefore, global stability. But the awareness that this crisis cannot face in isolation also grows. In this context, the court ruling is clear: no country can afford to renounce its obligations, as it would be an internationally illicit fact.

Climate change does not know borders, and that is why it demands an answer that transcends national interests in the short term. We need a collaborative approach, where multilateral solidarity and cooperation are in the center of the action. This global effort requires sharing capabilities, transferring technology, mobilizing financing and, above all, fulfilling the commitments assumed 10 years ago in Paris. An agreement, that of Paris, which was born to be the central instrument of the international climate regime and that remains our best tool to guide collective climatic action.

But for this cooperation to be effective, it must be based on clear rules that give coherence and stability to joint efforts. This is where international law plays a fundamental role. The international legal framework offers a structure that protects the most vulnerable, ensures accountability and reinforces climatic action.

The Tij ruling reaffirms that existing international commitments – as the Paris Agreement – are legally binding and that states have the obligation to act with diligence and good faith to fulfill them. This includes the objective of limiting global heating to 1.5 ° C, considered by science as the security threshold to avoid catastrophic damage, but also reduce dependence on fossil fuels, mainly responsible for greenhouse gas emissions.

The IPCC (Intergovernmental Group of Experts on Climate Change) has made it clear that there are technologies to achieve that goal, marking what the global roadmap should be: the deployment of renewable energy, energy efficiency, green hydrogen, storage, mobility and sustainable agriculture, as well as adaptation measures based on ecosystems.

This new legal support for climate action does not replace the political will, but it does reinforce and legitimizes it. It serves as a reminder that international commitments are not symbolic statements, but real obligations that must be fulfilled, and offers the communities affected by the climate crisis a more solid basis to demand justice. Because a clean, healthy and sustainable environment is not a luxury: it is a prerequisite for the exercise of fundamental rights such as health, food, access to water or even life itself. And, as the International Court recalls, the states have signed numerous treaties that force them to protect these rights, also against climate change.

Ultimately, the climatic emergency faces us to a transcendental collective choice: cooperate or fail. International law shows us the path of cooperation, equity and shared responsibility.

I celebrate that in these times when misinformation and denialism try to laminate the confidence of citizenship in science and in the fundamental principles on which our societies are based, the defense of human rights and the protection of our planet have won.

A powerful more necessary and urgent message than ever. Faced with those who have opted for no, it is time to reaffirm us in a resounding yes. A hopeful yes to science, multilateralism and collective action.