The Pacific island of Vanuatu notched up a major boost for climate action last Wednesday, successfully lobbying the UN to support a landmark international court of justice (ICJ) ruling made last year.
During last week’s UN general assembly in New York, Vanuatu introduced a draft resolution that “determined to translate the [ICJ]’s findings into enhanced multilateral cooperation and accelerated climate action at all levels, consistent with international law”. A total of 141 countries voted in favour of the resolution.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, said the general assembly’s majority support was “a powerful affirmation of international law, climate justice, science and the responsibility of states to protect people from the escalating climate crisis.”
Eight countries formed the dissenting minority: Belarus, Iran, Israel, Liberia, the Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, the US and Yemen. The US ambassador Tammy Bruce labelled the resolution “highly problematic” and said it included “inappropriate political demands relating to fossil fuels and on other climate topics”.
Island states that see climate change as an existential threat have been at the forefront of a wave of climate court cases in recent years.
Vanuatu, alongside a core group of countries that have been driving these efforts, went to the ICJ in April 2023. The collective sought clarification on the obligations of states to protect the climate system. The court, based in The Hague in the Netherlands, is the principal judicial organ of the UN. (In 2025, we interviewed Vanuatu’s attorney general about the case.)
In 2022, another coalition of nations brought the climate issue to the international tribunal for the law of the sea (Itlos). Called the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law (Cosis), this coalition is led by Tuvalu, and Antigua and Barbuda.
The opinions of these courts (bolstered by another, similarly affirmative ruling in July 2025 by the inter-American court of human rights) have been hailed by climate activists as strengthening the legal case for tough action to curb emissions.
Activists have hailed the outcome of last week’s UN vote as a welcome win during a year when multilateralism on reducing fossil fuel use has seemed increasingly threatened.
“This must be a turning point in accountability for damaging the climate,” said Vishal Prasad. He directs Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change, a campaign group that was instrumental in bringing the ICJ case.
“Communities on the frontlines, like in the Pacific, have been waiting far too long and continue to pay too high a price for the actions of others.”