EarthBeat Weekly: Are countries obligated to protect the planet? The church says yes, and now the world court agrees.

Are countries obligated to protect the planet? The church says yes, and now the world court agrees. EarthBeat Weekly Your weekly newsletter about faith and climate change August 29, 2025 Smoke rises from brick factories' stacks in the town of Nahrawan in Baghdad, Iraq, June 5, 2022. (CNS/Reuters/Thaier al-Sudani) What are countries' obligations to protect the climate and environment?  What are the legal consequences when countries cause them harm? Those are the two questions a group of South Pacific law students posed to the International Court of Justice — considered the world's most authoritative interpreter of international law — through a petition to the United Nations General Assembly in March 2023.  In July this year, they received answers when "the world's court" issued an advisory opinion saying countries have a legal obligation to reduce and control pollution, such as greenhouse gas emissions that trap heat in the Earth's atmosphere and contribute to climate change. If they don't, they could face legal consequences like reparations, restitution and compensation to countries harmed by the pollution and related climate impacts. Additionally, the ICJ opinion said that the right to a healthy, clean and sustainable environment is a foundational human right, a precondition to a "the right to life, the right to health and the right to an adequate standard of living, including access to water, food and housing." The legal recognition of a healthy environment as a human right is significant. "Human rights were used historically to end slavery, to end apartheid, to end or to make progress in discrimination against women," said David Boyd, who served as U.N. special rapporteur on the right to a healthy environment from 2018 to 2024. "Those are the kinds of transformative social changes we need to make today in terms of our relationship with the Earth's life support system." Catholic justice ministries and environmentalists have described the court opinion as a watershed moment for global efforts to address human-driven climate change and safeguard ecosystems and traditional lands, reported NCR environment correspondent Brian Roewe for EarthBeat. "What Pope Francis and others have presented as a moral obligation [this opinion expands] to a legal obligation to prevent climate change, and consequences for those who fail to do that," said Lisa Sullivan, senior program officer on integral ecology for the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns. Read more: World court ruling raises Catholic teaching on creation care to legal level     What else is new on EarthBeat:   Rural Catholics can help the whole church appreciate land as a gift from God by Fredrick Ssesanga Rural Catholic communities across the U.S. are experiencing a subtle yet significant shift toward environmental stewardship, which echo the moral teachings of Pope Francis' encyclical Laudato Si'.   Vatican official warns of AI’s hidden costs to environment, work and society by Sarah Mac Donald, OSV News Bishop Paul Tighe, a top official at the Vatican's Dicastery for Culture and Education, urged caution around AI's environmental and social costs in his address to the Congress of the European Society for Catholic Theology at Trinity College.   Pope to inaugurate Borgo Laudato Si' during Season of Creation by Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service Two months after celebrating a new Mass "for the care of creation," Pope Leo XIV will return to Castel Gandolfo to formally inaugurate Borgo Laudato Si', a place of education, ecology and spirituality in the papal summer estate.   Activists decry new border wall's impact on wildlife by Anita Snow The Trump administration is muscling forward with plans to wall off a critical international wildlife corridor, building a barrier along a gap on the U.S.-Mexico border. Catholics join activists worrying about irreparable ecological harm.   Trump has naive views of US immigrant farmworkers by Doug Sackman, The Conversation "Making that American dream a reality involves seeing farmworkers for who they are, I believe: vital members of the body politic who reconnect all Americans to nature through the foods they eat," writes history professor Doug Sackman.     After Katrina, I walked New Orleans' streets with sisters primed to rebuild the city by Carol Zimmermann Walking with two Presentation Sisters ministering months after Hurricane Katrina, NCR's Carol Zimmermann "was convinced the church here got it right about truly being present to those in need."   20 years ago, Katrina hit New Orleans hard; today, the Crescent City is rising with faith and hope by Peter Finney Jr., OSV News Katrina's impact has been multifaceted on both the city and on the local church.   What's happening in other climate news: Trump, with tariffs and threats, tries to strong-arm nations to retreat on climate goals –Lisa Friedman for the New York Times How Trump's anti-environment crusade enriches drug traffickers –Katie Surma for Inside Climate News How to organize a peaceful and effective climate protest –Colleen M. Crary for The Revelator, Yale Climate Connections The woman holding Chinese mining giants accountable –Katie Surma for Inside Climate News US oil and gas air pollution is causing unequal health impacts: Study –Sharon Udasin for The Hill US solar plant construction is on a record-breaking spree — for now –Julian Spector for Canary Media   Final Beat: "It all just feels so hopeless. Another mass shooting in America. … [Minneapolis] will be followed by somewhere else, just as it was preceded by [Nashville] and Uvalde, and Buffalo, and Sacramento, and San Jose, and Colorado Springs, and Indianapolis, and Rock Hill, and Boulder, and on, and on. … We are better than having to send our children — our children! — off to school each day, knowing that any person can walk in with an assault weapon and annihilate them."  We first ran a version of this editorial in May 2022, following the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas that killed 19 children. We ran a new version in 2023 following the mass shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee that killed three children. And we are resharing it again now in light of the Aug. 27 fatal shooting at Annunciation Church in Minneapolis. Find all of NCR's coverage of the Minneapolis shooting here.  Thanks for reading EarthBeat. Stephanie Clary Environment Editor National Catholic Reporter sclary@ncronline.org     Featured Advertisers   Enroll in one of our mini-courses to deepen your understanding of Buddhism, Protestantism, and the Resurrection — the bedrock of Christian faith.    Advertisement