The ICJ advisory opinion on climate change and the Paris Agreement

The International Court of Justice (ICJ)’s Advisory Opinion on Obligations of States in Respect of Climate Change, delivered on July 23, 2025, 1 marks a pivotal moment in international climate change law, renewing the interpretation and role of the Paris Agreement 2 in a way that better reflects its spirit. Addressing what the Court describes as an ‘existential problem of planetary proportions’ 3 , the interpretation provided by the world’s highest Court the very year of the 10th anniversary of the Paris Agreement is particularly important to reset the understanding of what, in good faith, the agreement was intended to achieve. This is because it goes back to the esprit de Paris, unburdened by the twists, turns and tricks that have been used over the last decade to thwart the effectiveness of the agreement. This article analyzes the contribution of the Court to the understanding of the Paris Agreement, looking at its core provisions and assessing the range of different judicial views that have been expressed in relation to this contribution, particularly from the perspective of climate justice.