Rules of the United Nations Rich Nations must respect climate commitments or pay for this

The highest court of the United Nations ruled on Wednesday that rich countries were to comply with their commitments to slow fossil fuels and pollution or the risk of being held financially responsible by the nations which have most harsh climate change.

The International Court of Justice of 15 UN members said that the treaties forced the rich nations to limit global warming and that countries were also responsible for the actions of companies under their jurisdiction or their control, Reuters reported.

“States must cooperate to achieve objectives of reducing concrete emissions,” Judge Yuji Iwasawa told The Hague. “Greenhouse gas emissions are unequivocally caused by human activities that are not territorially limited.”

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The climate activists demonstrate outside the International Court of Justice (ICJ) before Wednesday’s opinion which will probably determine the course of future climate change in Hague, in the Netherlands, on July 23, 2025. (Reuters / Marta Fiorin)

Not doing so could lead to “complete repairs to the injured states in the form of restitution, compensation and satisfaction provided that the general conditions of the State Act of the State are met,” said the report.

In response to the decision, the White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers told Fox News Digital that “as always, President Trump and the whole administration have committed to put America first and to prioritize the interests of everyday Americans”.

The UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said that the opinion of the court affirms that the objectives of the Paris climate agreement should be at the basis of all climate policies.

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The delegation of Tuvalu arrives for the public hearings of the Court of Justice of the United Nations Court of the United Nations (ICJ) in a case of advisory opinion, which could become a reference point in the definition of the legal obligations of the countries to combat climate change, in The Hague, the Netherlands, on December 2, 2024. (Reuters / Piroschka Van de Wouw / File photo)

“This is a victory for our planet, for climate justice and for the power of young people to make the difference,” he said. “The world must answer.”

Wednesday’s decision was welcomed by a number of small nation states.

“I did not expect it to be so good,” said Ralph Regenvanu, the climate minister of the Vanuatu Pacific nation.

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Many developing countries and small island states have declared that they were at great risk of increasing sea level. Some asked for clarification from the court after the failure of the 2015 Paris Agreement to limit the growth of global greenhouse gas emissions.