Looking forward to this Climate Solutions event on Thursday!

Join @drdavidboyd.bsky.social's talk next week on this summer's powerful legal updates on the right to a healthy environment! 📍September 11, 2025 | CIRS BC Hydro Theatre 2:00 – 2:30 pm Networking (in-person) 2:30 – 3:30 pm Presentation (in-person and online) climatesolutions.ubc.ca/news-and-eve...

Surely the time for excuses and delays is over. The Council of Europe must finally adopt a protocol recognizing the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. As the International Court of Justice unanimously concluded, "in so far as States parties to human rights treaties ...

The call comes from within – again! Last Friday, the Committee on Social Affairs, Health & Sustainable Development of the @coe.int called for the legal protection of the right to a healthy environment! 🌍 pace.coe.int/en/news/9992... 1/5

The substantive obligations stemming from the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment can be found in previous reports by the Special Rapporteur, and confirmed by courts across the world. States must take immediate and ambitious rights-based action to:

July 2025 marked a significant milestone for climate justice as the human right to a healthy environment was recognized by top judicial authorities. @drdavidboyd.bsky.social, IRES professor & former UN Special Rapporteur, discussed its implications: 🔗 verfassungsblog.de/icj-climate-...

Big question Has there ever been a more important court ruling than last week's advisory opinion on climate change from the International Court of Justice? Facing an existential threat, the ICJ ruled that all States are obligated to protect the climate system by decarbonizing ASAP or polluters pay $

Driven by youth and Small Island States, courts have made it clear that bold climate action and generous climate finance are legally binding obligations that States must fulfil to protect the climate system & protect human rights verfassungsblog.de/icj-climate-... verfassungsblog.de/right-to-a-h...

🌍⚖️ The ICJ now recognizes the right to a healthy environment—a breakthrough for international climate justice. Read the latest blog post by @drdavidboyd.bsky.social unpacks what this means for law, human rights, and environmental accountability. 🔗 buff.ly/hmYD5xA #ICJ #HumanRights

ICJ Advisory Opinion! This is an absolutely massive and historic day for climate justice! Huge thanks to Pacific Island Students Fighting Climate Change and World Youth for Climate Justice who deserve the Nobel Peace Prize for their role in this. Also kudos to Vanuatu for incredible leadership!

New from me: How China's clean energy manufacturing boom is helping reduce CO2 emissions overseas. In 2024, China’s exports of solar panels, batteries and electric vehicles are shaved 1% off global emissions outside of China.

‼️ 🌍⚖️NEW POST: @drdavidboyd.bsky.social discusses 3 points on the advisory opinion—the right to a healthy climate, the rights of Nature, & the recognition of a new jus cogens norm prohibiting massive & irreversible damage to the climate & environment. Read ➡️ blogs.law.columbia.edu/climatechang...

Tomorrow, the #ICJ rules on climate justice - and #FossilFuels are finally on trial. Why does it matter? Our new blog explains why naming and phasing out fossil fuels is a legal and moral necessity. Read more👉 bit.ly/4kPEEBU #ClimateJustice

Tomorrow the world's highest court, the International Court of Justice, will issue what may be the most important judicial ruling in human history. Facing an unprecedented climate emergency, will the Court have the courage to stand up to the fossil fuel giants and hold them accountable? Stay tuned!

🔥 TOMORROW, history will be made. The International Court of Justice #CIJ_ICJ will issue its first-ever Advisory Opinion on the #ClimateCrisis, a legal milestone that could redefine states’ responsibilities to protect #HumanRights and the planet.

Climate justice win! IA Court on Human Rights elaborates legal obligations around a healthy climate as part of the right to a healthy environment. Meanwhile @coe.int still debates whether it should recognise it. Our answer? YES - we urge the Council to adopt a protocol to the European Convention!

The right to a healthy environment is at the heart of the Inter_American Court of Human Rights powerful new ruling on the climate emergency. The right basically prohibits "anthropogenic conduct with an irreversible impact on the vital balance of the planetary ecosystem" More to follow ...

OK, here we go! The Inter-American Court of Human Rights is releasing its Advisory Opinion on human rights and the climate emergency. Huge anticipation that this could be a powerful catalyst for climate justice, by clarifying the obligations that State must respect and the actions they must take ...

Trump's budget has $1.1 trillion in tax cuts for people making more than $500,000/year. And it has $1.1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid and food stamps. Straight transfer from people who cannot afford food and medical care to people who can afford to fly first class. Ezra Klein NYT

The climate, pollution & biodiversity crisis is harming our health, says Denis Fernando of @friends-earth.bsky.social At next week's @coe.int meeting, Ministers must support a binding instrument legally protecting the right to a #HealthyEnvironmentForAll - foundational to all human rights!

States must act now in a global environmental crisis. Former UN Rapporteur @drdavidboyd.bsky.social urges @coe.int Ministers meeting in Luxembourg to start negotiating a binding instrument on the right to a #HealthyEnvironmentForAll. You've backed it at the UN, now make it real for Europe!

This is more important than all of the idiotic Trump announcements of the past two months: Record breaking coral bleaching, with potential impacts in the trillions of dollars Also, heart-breaking!! Climate crisis is NOT a hoax. www.cbc.ca/news/science...

Further evidence of a world turned upside down--those striving to protect this beautiful planet and its life support system ordered to pay $660 million to a fossil fuel giant. This is a total perversion of justice, opposite of "polluter pays" and hopefully overturned on appeal. I ❤️ Greenpeace!

The fear of billion-dollar lawsuits is stopping countries from phasing out fossil fuels. The Guardian analyzed the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) system, citing a 2023 report by IRES/@ubcsppga.bsky.social prof @drdavidboyd.bsky.social: www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Human rights are non-negotiable. The US can walk away from the UN Human Rights Council but it cannot walk away from its human rights obligations. Russia is a human rights free zone. We must united our efforts to prevent the USA from becoming the same.

Canada's air #pollution laws not being properly enforced as industrial polluters aren't being held to account for offenses, say @ires.ubc.ca professors Drs. Amanda Giang (@agiang.bsky.social) and David R Boyd (@drdavidboyd.bsky.social). theconversation.com/big-corporat...

The Committee of Ministers decides that 🇨🇭isn't yet doing enough to meet the landmark #KlimaSeniorinnen judgment. www.greenpeace.ch/de/medienmit...

Delighted to share my conversation with brilliant climate law expert Anirudh Nanda. Lots of outrage and a healthy dose of optimism! creators.spotify.com/pod/show/is-...

World's richest man is attacking world's poorest people by cutting down US AID, which provides tens of billions of dollars in vital assistance to people in need across the world. So vile and reprehensible!! www.nytimes.com/live/2025/02...

So our brains are filling up with microplastics ... could explain a lot of the increasingly idiotic behaviour seen today? www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Here's a quick and compelling summary of the horrible anti-environmental moves made on Trump's first day. There's nothing good--only bad, ugly and absurd! blogs.law.columbia.edu/climatechang...

Great overview of the most important case in the history of humanity. The International Court of Justice is preparing an Advisory Opinion on the legal obligations of States to address the climate crisis, and the consequences of breaching those obligations. www.climateinthecourts.com/court-hearin...

This month, the world's highest court held hearings in what experts say is a landmark #climatejustice case, one that could have long-lasting impacts on climate law & governance Some highlights & key things to know (🧵) www.climateinthecourts.com/court-hearin...

Huge victory for the right to a healthy environment in Montana today as the state Supreme Court upheld a lower court judgment finding that this right includes the right to a stable climate system. dailymontanan.com/wp-content/u... The Court made some powerful observations:

Just days after the end of the International Court of Justice hearings on the climate crisis, Tropical Cyclone Chido smashed into Mayotte, a French territory off the east coast of Africa. A cyclone intensified by climate change! www.euronews.com/green/2024/1...

Honoured to be part of the Peoples' Assembly at The Hague last week, a youth led initiative bringing the voices of people badly harmed by the climate crisis to the world's highest court. Their testimony was heart-breaking! Their call for rights-based action was clear! www.pisfcc.org/peoplespetit...

End of coal era! In a landmark ruling, a South African court overturned plans to add 1,500 MW of new coal-fired power to the national grid. The government failed to adequately consider the impact of coal on children's right to a healthy environment. www.africanclimatealliance.org/blog/court-s...

Financial firms have made hundreds of millions investing in legal claims filed against governments. Now, those “litigation funders” are eyeing an expected increase in cases as governments phase out fossil fuels. insideclimatenews.org/news/0812202...

What a total delight to be supporting this brilliant group of young lawyers at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. For daily insights into the hearing, sign up for the Daily Debrief at www.wy4cj.org/icjao-hearings

At the International Court of Justice today in The Hague for the start of historic hearings on States' obligations to address the climate crisis. Huge credit to youth and Pacific States for launching what may be the most important legal case in human history ... to avert climate chaos!

As the clock winds down on the COP29 negotiations in Baku, here's a useful article on rights-based approaches to climate finance: www.sustainableviews.com/right-to-a-h...

Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados is an inspiring champion for climate solutions. Can she bring President Trump on board? If anyone can, she can! www.theguardian.com/environment/...

“I think the right to a healthy environment is actually the foundation that we require to enjoy all other human rights. If we don’t have a living, healthy planet Earth, then all the other rights are just words on paper.” www.theguardian.com/world/articl...

Delighted to be joining the BlueSky community and moving away from the cesspool that Twitter became. As the former UN Special Rapporteur on the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, I look forward to engaging on how we can accelerate rights-based solutions to planetary crises!