Current Trends In Climate Litigation: What Do Corporates Need To Know?

On 23 July 2025, the International Court of Justice ("ICJ") delivered an advisory opinion on countries' climate change obligations. The ICJ, which is the United Nations' principal judicial organ, found that countries are obligated under both treaties and customary international law to ensure protection of the climate system from greenhouse gas ("GHG") emissions. More significantly, the opinion potentially opens the door to claims against countries that fail to act in accordance with these obligations, which include regulating companies within their jurisdictions.

For fossil fuel companies in particular, the ICJ's advisory opinion opens the door to potential new areas of climate change legal risk. This is because the ICJ recognized that countries' climate change obligations encompass activities relating to the production and licensing of, and subsidies for, fossil fuels. According to the ICJ, a nation's failure to take appropriate action to protect the climate