Unai Pascual García de Azilu, BC3

Text written in Basque and translated automatically by Elia without any subsequent editing. SEE ORIGINAL

Climate change and human rights

Unai Pascual García de Azilu, BC3

the year 2025 has passed, but not without breaking new records in terms of climate. The World Meteorological Organization has just confirmed that last year was one of the warmest three years, continuing the wave of unusual global temperatures. The last 11 years have been the warmest of the last 176 years recorded. Moreover, the last three years, 2023-2025, have been the three warmest years. Toast! Toast!

Not just that. Ocean warming continues unabated, a critical indicator of climate change, with about 90 percent of the excess heat from global warming accumulating in the ocean. between 2024 and 2025, the thermal energy stored in the ocean has been increasing. An amount of energy equivalent to the electricity generated in the world has been accumulated. Toast! Toast!

There is another important news that 2025 has left us. This has come hand in hand with international law. Last year we could say that the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) marked a turning point in international law, since both have officially confirmed that climate change is a man-made existential threat.

The NJG advocates for the right to a safe climate and recognizes the disproportionate damage that climate change causes to the most vulnerable groups, such as women, indigenous peoples, peasants, artisanal fishermen and young people. According to this Court, a prerequisite for fundamental human rights such as health is a healthy environment. It notes that States have an obligation to prevent damage resulting from climate change. In addition, it has established as a legal obligation not to cross the 1.5°C global warming barrier marked by science and established in the 2015 Paris agreement.

“States and companies now know that their actions can now be judged according to these standards.”

These international court resolutions have established a unified, science-based framework that civil society can use to lobby for the transformation of the socio-economic system. From now on, the need to fight climate change will not only be something that comes from science, but has also become an international legal obligation. States and companies now know that their actions can now be judged according to these standards.

Now, although according to international law, not restricting CO₂ emissions may be an illegal act, the way forward will not be automatic or easy. To give an example, the United States is not subject to the jurisdiction of these courts. What’s more, environmental advocates are threatened by the authoritarian setback of global Trumpism. The global movement of authoritarianism is well aware of the need to delegitimize social movements based on science and mobilization, which today are the ones that oppose their corporate and imperialist interests. Let's not sit in front of them.