On 23 July 2025, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the world's highest judicial authority, delivered an advisory opinion on the legal obligations of states in addressing the climate crisis. The Court confirmed what many actors from the Global South have long argued: failing to act in the face of the climate crisis - by failing to prevent harm, cooperate internationally, or to protect human rights - constitutes a violation of states' obligations under international law. And such violations entail climate reparations.
This long-awaited opinion marks a major turning point in global climate governance, particularly for Africa, which is disproportionately affected by the impacts of the climate crisis. Communities and states across the continent are bearing the full brunt of the crisis, through worsening desertification, heatwaves, floods, droughts, and the destruction of biodiversity (external link). On a human and economic level, the losses caused by extreme climate events are enormous, reaching up to 5% of annual GDP in some countries, while the estimated financial needs to respond are between 187 and 359 billion US dollars per year (external link). For example, Cyclone Freddy (external link) in 2023 devastated Mozambique, Malawi, and Madagascar, killing more than 870 people, displacing over a million others, and destroying hundreds of thousands of homes, agricultural lands, and critical infrastructure.
As noted in the 2022 Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), this vulnerability is no accident of history but the result of centuries of colonial extraction of resources and the destructive exploitation of African ecosystems by countries and corporations from the Global North. Industrialized states have so far dismissed calls for reparations.
For Africa, the ICJ opinion changes the nature of the debate. Adopted unanimously by all 15 judges, it leaves no ambiguity as to the obligations of polluting states. They have clear and legally binding obligations under international law to prevent significant harm resulting from greenhouse gas emissions. The Court also explicitly recognizes the historical responsibility of developed countries with high cumulative emissions who bear stricter obligations. This recognition is crucial for African states (external link), which have consistently called for equity and differentiated responsibilities to be reflected in global climate governance.
The Court goes even further, suggesting that states that fail to take the necessary measures to protect the climate system from greenhouse gas emissions, including from fossil fuel production, consumption, exploration licenses, or subsidies, may be held responsible for an internationally wrongful act.
In countries, particularly in Africa, where multinational corporations extract resources, the opinion therefore calls on states to adopt stricter regulation and raises the possibility of legal accountability.
For Africa, as for many states in the Global South, this opinion opens the door to climate reparations, challenging the current model of global climate governance, which has until now been based on aid policies, through loans, adaptation finance, and other contested approaches such as carbon markets, offsets, and REDD+. The International Court of Justice unequivocally affirms that states suffering the adverse consequences of the climate crisis have a right to reparation. It adds that if states fail to prevent harm or fulfil their obligations, they may be required to provide reparations in the form of compensation, restitution - such as restoring an ecosystem or repairing damaged infrastructure - or guarantees of non-repetition, to be assessed on a case-by-case basis.
While this opinion clarifies the law and provides much-needed momentum for climate reparations, it is up to African states to seize this moment to demand structural change and reparative justice. In a global context where international public aid commitments are waning, the Court's opinion presents a legal and political opportunity to rethink the terms of global climate governance. And Africa must step up.
Two ongoing initiatives at the continental level could serve as powerful levers and resonate with this opinion. First, there is the African Union's declaration of a Decade for Reparations for colonial injustices, within which climate reparations could become a central component. Second, there is the petition (external link) submitted to the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights, which could become a critical tool to empower African states to regulate the harmful activities of transnational corporations on the continent.
Africa must now seize this moment to reshape global climate governance.