Latest reports show that the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has named a youth-led non-governmental organisation (NGO), Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change, as one of its five 2025 Champions of the Earth. Recognised in the Policy Leadership category, the NGO played a pivotal role in securing a landmark advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ), affirming states’ legal obligations with respect to climate change.
As global temperatures approach the 1.5°C warming threshold, pledges continue to fall short of the Paris Agreement goals, and adaptation costs for developing countries are projected to reach between USD 310 billion and 365 billion annually by 2035. This year’s award focuses on the climate crisis. This is according to a UNEP press release, which notes that this year’s Champions “prove that action is possible – and powerful.”
The other four Champions are:
- Supriya Sahu, Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Tamil Nadu (Inspiration and Action), recognised for her pioneering role in sustainable cooling and ecosystem restoration;
- Mariam Issoufou, Principal and Founder, Mariam Issoufou Architects, Niger/France (Entrepreneurial Vision), recognised for grounding her architecture in local materials and cultural heritage and redefining sustainable, climate-resilient buildings across the Sahel;
- Imazon, Brazil (Science and Innovation), – a non-profit research institute combining science and artificial intelligence (AI)-driven geospatial tools to curb deforestation; and
- Manfredi Caltagirone, former head of UNEP’s International Methane Emissions Observatory (Lifetime Achievement), was recognised posthumously for championing transparency and science-based action on methane, which influenced the EU’s first regulation on methane emissions and helped shape global energy policy.
The long journey towards the ICJ Advisory Opinion began in a classroom, swelling to a global youth movement to demand climate justice. A small Pacific Island State of Vanuatu embraced the legal challenge and, with the backing of more than 130 developing and developed countries, spearheaded a UNGA resolution requesting the ICJ for an advisory opinion to clarify countries’ obligations under international law to protect the climate system from anthropogenic GHG emissions “for States and for present and future generations.”
The seminal Advisory Opinion clarified that mitigation of and adaptation to the adverse effects of climate change is not a policy choice but a legal obligation, rooted in climate treaties, other multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs), international custom, human rights law, and general principles of international law. The Court also clarified the legal consequences of inaction under the law of state responsibility.
Story was adapted from SDG hub.
