Today’s non-stop news cycle makes it all too easy to lose sight of truly significant events, and last week’s climate ruling by the World Court is a striking example. “Landmark” and “historic” were two of the adjectives employed by the many news organizations covering the case, and those adjectives were warranted.
“Landmark” because the ruling shifts the legal and political terrain on which climate policy has been contested for decades. Lawsuits against fossil fuel companies, and against governments that enable such companies, have been given new ammunition. Experts expect the ruling will spark more lawsuits beyond the nearly 3,000 already underway in 60 countries. For journalists, every one of these lawsuits is a news story.
“Historic” because the ruling addresses the core question that has bedeviled international climate politics since countries began debating the issue at the 1992 UN Earth Summit. The countries most vulnerable to climate change, most of them poor, have long pointed out that they didn’t cause the problem. The planet is overheating because a relatively small number of countries, most of them rich, have burned massive amounts of oil, coal, and gas. As a matter of basic fairness, the argument goes, rich countries should pay poor countries for the damage they are suffering.
This argument has always been, in essence, a moral one, and rich countries have paid it little more than lip service. Despite repeated pledges, they’ve never delivered even the $100 billion a year in aid (itself a gross understatement of the actual damages) required under the Paris Agreement, Oxfam has documented.
Now, however, the World Court ruling gives this moral argument the force of law. Both CNN and The Guardian said “reparations” are now on the table. Rich countries have “a duty to repair,” the climate minister of Vanuatu, a Pacific island state whose students spearheaded the lawsuit, told Democracy Now!
But does this ruling really matter in today’s world, where international law is being flagrantly violated in Gaza and Ukraine and elsewhere, and China, the US, and other countries routinely ignore rulings they don’t like?
It might, because other countries do take international law seriously. Harj Narulla, who represented the Solomon Islands in the World Court case, told The New York Times that international law is “automatically incorporated into domestic law in some countries, such as France and Germany.” The same is true in the Netherlands. And courts in the UK, Canada, and Australia consult international law when ruling on domestic cases.
The ruling might also color developments at the COP30 summit in November, for it obligates governments to “use all means at their disposal” to limit temperature rise to the 1.5-degree-Celsius target of the Paris Agreement. That could make the $7 trillion that the world’s governments annually spend to subsidize fossil fuels unlawful. It could require shutting down 195 oil and gas projects around the world that The Guardian has identified as “carbon bombs” that would “shatter the 1.5C climate goal.” It could make the Trump administration’s proposal, announced on Tuesday, to repeal the EPA’s legal authority to regulate greenhouse gases unlawful.
While it’s too soon to know how the World Court’s ruling will play out in the months ahead, its significance seems beyond doubt. The climate story just got a lot more interesting.
From Us
The Climate Newsroom. Extreme weather is becoming the new normal. Do you have the tools and story ideas to cover it? Our new, free training program will help your newsroom ensure that it is giving your audience the climate coverage they want. The online sessions are available in English and Spanish and are designed to give your audience accurate information with clear language based on facts and science, with a focus on people. Learn more.
CCNow Basics: Reporting Climate Through a Justice Lens. Climate change impacts us all, but not equally. Those who contributed the least to the crisis are often the ones facing its harshest consequences. Join us on August 13, at 9am US Eastern Time for a live training session. Together, we’ll explore how to recognize injustice, investigate responsibilities, and tell stories that reveal the full picture. RSVP.
Covering extreme heat. Raising awareness about the dangers of extreme heat and protections against it help audiences stay safe. Get story ideas, resources, and reporting tips from NBC Miami’s meteorologist and climate change reporter, Steve MacLaughlin, in this evergreen edition of Locally Sourced.
Quote of the Week
“Edelman has obvious conflicts of interest and is completely unsuited for a role at the climate talks.”
– Duncan Meisel, executive director of Clean Creatives, told Climate Home News, reacting to news of the $835,000 contract awarded to Edelman PR by the UN COP30 committee
Noteworthy Stories
Blinded to science. The US Environmental Protection Agency administrator, Lee Zeldin, announced a proposal on Tuesday to eliminate the “endangerment finding” that underpins the agency’s ability to regulate greenhouse gases to combat climate change. By Jake Spring and Anusha Mathur for The Washington Post…
- Fact check. Scientists say that the EPA proposal is “rife with climate disinformation.” By Chelsea Harvey and Scott Waldman for E&E News…
- Weakening NEPA. Last week, President Donald Trump unveiled the AI Action Plan, a new executive order that “would seek to sweep aside” the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), a 55-year-old “foundational” law that requires federal agencies to review potential environmental impacts and public comments before moving projects forward. By Melina Walling and Matthew Daly for the Associated Press…
Climate migration. Officials in Tuvalu, an island nation in Oceana threatened by climate change, are making preparations for “the first planned migration of an entire country.” Tuvalu and Australia signed the Falepili Union Treaty in 2023, which paves the way for 280 Tuvalans to resettle in Australia as permanent residents each year. By Fernanda Gonzalez for Wired…
‘Devastation bill.’ Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is facing growing pressure to veto a bill passed by the legislature that would upend the country’s environmental permitting process, making it easier for mining, agribusiness, and other projects to proceed in the Amazon. By Andre Cabette Fabio for Context…
Red tape. Australians and Europeans are installing solar panels on their roofs and balconies for a third of the price that Americans pay. Overly complicated local regulations and slow permitting are to blame. But mayors and state legislatures have the power to fix it. By Bill McKibben for Mother Jones…
Fourth estate. Inside Climate News’s founder and publisher considers how journalists might “flood the zone with truth” to “build enduring public understanding” of climate change and its solutions. By David Sassoon for Inside Climate News…
Dispatch #11 from the Climate Blueprint for Media Transformation: Collaborate to Boost Climate Coverage
For several months, we’ve been periodically sharing standout insights from the Climate Blueprint for Media Transformation, a collaboration between CCNow and the Solutions Journalism Network. This is the eleventh installment.
Climate change is a shared global problem, and newsrooms can respond in a way that emphasizes that. This means newsrooms can ease the spirit of competition and instead embrace one of collaboration. Not only can this build more comprehensive coverage, but it can underscore the importance of the problem.
Collaborations can vary in scope. As global climate and environmental news director for The Associated Press, Peter Prengaman helped oversee some truly global cooperation, working with Indigenous US newsrooms and large outlets in India alike. Sometimes they teamed up for one story, sometimes a whole series. But the lesson was clear: When the problem is shared, the work can be too, and everyone — reporters and readers alike — ends up better off.
“Every collaboration is different,” Prengaman observes, “but the goals are always the same: learn from each other, raise capacity and sophistication around climate change coverage, and, ultimately, produce strong journalism that helps readers understand what is happening with the climate and how it impacts them.” Read more.
Resources & Events
The Union of Concerned Scientists released a report that details the many ways that the Trump administration “has systematically destroyed federal scientific systems” over the past six months, documenting 402 of what the authors characterize as “attacks on science.” Read the report.
The International Energy Agency is out with its mid-year electricity report. Highlights: Coal is expected to be surpassed by renewables as early as this year or next. Solar and wind are behind the shift, with a combined share of electricity generation projected to reach almost 20% by 2026, representing a near five-fold increase from only a decade ago. Read the report.
Jobs & Fellowships
The Guardian is looking for a senior investigative science reporter (Washington, D.C.). CNN’s Climate & Weather team is seeking a senior data visuals editor (five locations, US). The Minnesota Star Tribune is hiring an outdoors editor (Minneapolis, Minn.). New Scientist is looking for an environment news reporter (London, UK). The Financial Times Live is looking for a senior content editor (London, UK).
The Heinrich Böll Foundation, Washington, D.C., in partnership with the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung European Union, is seeking a select number of journalists for its third Climate Disinformation Media Fellowship. They are looking for journalists with “research ideas on the threat of growing climate denialism, the relationship between big tech and climate obstruction, the climate counter-disinformation community or similar topics.” Apply by September 9. Learn more.
