On August 13, the United Nations General Assembly voted to adopt a resolution supporting the landmark July 2025 ruling by the International Court of Justice, which concluded that states have a legal responsibility to act in order to prevent climate change from worsening.
The vote saw 141 UN member states in favor, 8 against, and 28 abstentions. The countries voting against were Belarus, Iran, Israel, Liberia, Russia, Saudi Arabia, the United States, and Yemen.
The historic ruling from the ICJ in The Hague in July 2025 determined that climate change is an 'existential threat' and stressed that states have a legal obligation to act to protect the planet. It was the largest case ever considered by the ICJ's 15 judges, with tens of thousands of pages of submissions from parties and two weeks of oral arguments before the ruling was delivered.
Vanuatu's Minister for Climate Change, Ralph Regenvanu, who led the campaign to bring the case before the ICJ, described the vote as a victory for 'communities on the front lines of the climate crisis'. 'Today, the international community affirmed that climate change is not just a political and economic challenge, but a matter of law, justice, and human rights,' he said. 'For vulnerable nations like Vanuatu, this resolution carries deep meaning because it affirms that no country stands above its obligations to protect people, future generations, and our planet.'
The case was brought to the ICJ following a request by the UN General Assembly after a Vanuatu-led resolution was adopted by consensus in March 2023. However, this vote faced notable opposition. Al Jazeera previously reported that the United States sent diplomatic cables urging UN member states not to support the resolution. In those cables, the US argued that Vanuatu should 'immediately withdraw the draft resolution and stop trying to use the Court's advisory opinion as a basis to create a path to pursue any erroneous claims of international legal obligations.'
Wesley Morgan, a member of the Climate Council, an Australian nonprofit, said the vote confirms that states have a legal obligation to act on climate change. 'This landmark resolution is a huge win for Vanuatu and Pacific leaders who have spent decades fighting to survive on the front lines of the climate crisis,' he said. 'For too long, the fossil fuel giants have treated climate action as a political choice, but the UN General Assembly has now confirmed it is a binding legal obligation.'
