I Read 133 Pages of the ICJ Climate Change Opinion So You Don’t Have To. Here Are Its 10 Commandments for Countries (in 2 minutes)
By Yusra Suedi (PhD, Assistant Professor of International Law at University of Manchester)
On 23 July 2025, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) released its blockbuster climate opinion — 133 pages (and 457 paragraphs) that boil down to one simple message: countries have to step up their game. Here are the ICJ’s “Ten Commandments,” in plain English.
1. Your obligations go way beyond the Paris Agreement.
The ICJ said countries can’t just shrug and go, ‘Well, we’re trying to follow the Paris Agreement, so we’re good!’ Climate obligations come from all sorts of other places too: environmental agreements, human rights rules, other climate agreements, the law of the sea, principles, and more. In short, there’s a lot more relevant law to respect out there than some countries like to admit!
2. Even if you didn’t ratify the agreements, you’re still bound.
Countries that haven’t ratified the written agreements (basically, finished the formal steps to make it legally binding in their own system) can’t just say, ‘Well, I don’t have any climate obligations.’
Some climate obligations (like to prevent significant harm to the environment, or to cooperate) don’t even come from written agreements — they come from long-standing, consistent state practice (aka, custom). And customary rules bind everyone, treaty or no treaty (looking at you, USA…).
3. You must exercise real due diligence.
Countries must take serious, science-based steps to avoid making climate change worse — by, e.g., assessing risks before possibly harming the environment, adopting serious climate plans, and acting even when science isn’t perfectly certain.
4. Your climate plans must actually be ambitious.
Under the Paris Agreement, every country sets its own plan for fighting climate change (called ‘Nationally Determined Contributions/NDCs’) – and commits to sticking to it, updating it every 5 years.
Countries don’t get to set weak climate plans. NDCs must reflect due diligence (see #3 above), be ambitious and must collectively align with the 1.5°C goal (see #7 below).
5. You must cooperate internationally.
Climate change is a collective problem. Countries must share information, work together, and coordinate climate action in good faith.
6. Don’t let private actors do the dirty work for you.
Countries must stop companies from doing things that weaken global climate efforts.
7. Stop talking about 2°C.
The Paris Agreement wants to keep the world from getting more than 2°C hotter than before the industrial era, and ideally limit it to 1.5°C.
But the ICJ says that now, the world really needs to stay under 1.5°C. This is no longer the ideal but the main goal. Anything more than that isn’t an option.
8. Yes, you can be held accountable.
If countries don’t follow these (many!) climate obligations, they can be held responsible.
9. You can’t just keep producing fossil fuels like nothing is happening.
Countries can be held responsible for producing or using fossil fuels, giving permission to look for more, or giving financial support for fossil fuels.
10. “Everyone else is doing it” is not a defence.
Even if many countries are polluting, each country can still be held responsible. Scientists can measure how much pollution each country causes. So there.
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Which one surprised you the most? Comment below!