'A new era:' World court issues landmark ruling in biggest ever climate court case

The failure of countries to protect the planet from climate change may be a violation of international law, the UN's top court has said in a landmark ruling likely to shape climate litigation for years to come.

In the world's biggest ever climate court case, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Wednesday also said countries damaged by climate change-fuelled extreme weather could be entitled to reparations in some cases. "Failure of a state to take appropriate action to protect the climate system...

may constitute an internationally wrongful act," Judge Yuji Iwasawa, the court president, said during the hearing. It wraps up the largest ever case heard by the ICJ in the Hague, which involved 96 countries, 10,000 pages of documents, 15 judges and two weeks of hearings in December.

Mr Iwasawa added a "clean, healthy and sustainable environment" is a human right - a verdict that may pave the way for countries to take each other to court for breaching that duty. Wednesday's findings have been claimed as a "tremendous victory" by campaigners and vulnerable nations like the Pacific islands of Vanuatu and Tuvalu, which are rapidly disappearing underwater, while footing the bill for climate damages caused by bigger, richer, more polluting countries.

It will likely disappoint Global North countries - like the UK, Australia and Canada - who had told the judges in December that their climate responsibilities are limited to those set out in the Paris climate agreement. The 140-page long advisory opinion is non-binding, and it will take time to assess its true impact on climate action around the world.

But observers say it sets a precedent for future court cases and opens the door for new types of lawsuits. Joana Setzer, climate litigation expert at the London School of Economics, said: "For the first time, the world's highest court has made clear that states have a legal duty not only to prevent climate harm - but to fully repair it." She added: "It adds decisive weight to calls for fair and effective climate reparations." Existing treaties like the Paris Agreement are widely perceived to not go far enough to tackle climate change, and progress on tackling emissions has gone at a snail's pace in comparison with the pace that scientists say is needed.

Island nations, not content to "go silently to our watery graves.