Latin America’s top court of human rights has decided for the first time that people have the right to a “healthy climate” without “dangerous” human interference, and has urged states to regulate fossil fuel extraction and exploration, in a landmark climate decision.
Culminating a two-year process that involved more than 260 submissions from governments, companies and local communities, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) on Thursday handed down an advisory opinion requested in 2023 by Chile and Colombia to clarify state obligations related to the climate crisis.
In a public hearing held at the court’s headquarters in the Costa Rican capital of San José, Judge Nancy Hernández read out the trailblazing decision on climate change, which for the first time in IACHR history stated a clear link between the “climate emergency” and human rights. The opinion also recognises that states and companies have an obligation to mitigate global warming and its impacts.
“The evidence we saw during the hearings and written submissions shows us that there is no more margin for indifference,” said Judge Hernández. “This is a contribution from law, but law alone is not enough. Success depends on what each one of us can do.”
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights holds jurisdiction over 20 Latin American and Caribbean states, where its advisory opinions are binding. But the strongly-worded climate ruling states that it is binding for all signatories of the Organization of American States, including the US and Canada.
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What does the advisory opinion say?
The landmark 230-page ruling mentions for the first time a subcategory of the human right to a healthy environment, by introducing a “right to a healthy climate”. Court judges said that this is defined as a climate system “free of anthropogenic interference dangerous” for nature and people.
According to the court ruling, states are also expected to cooperate to take actions to reduce emissions that are “as ambitious as possible”, and are obliged to prevent harm by carrying out environmental impact studies.
Recognising the significant climate impact of specific industries, the judges said states have a “minimum” duty to “supervise and control” exploration, extraction and processing of fossil fuels, as well as the cement and agriculture industries.
The advisory opinion also states that governments must establish “differentiated obligations” for companies with higher historical emissions, and impose stricter “duties on companies that carry out activities that generate greater GHG emissions”.
Sergio Diaz, legal director of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, said the opinion makes clear that governments in the Americas must take more ambitious measures against climate change, including addressing the main source of planet-heating emissions: fossil fuels.
“In this context, the adoption of new binding norms that clearly regulate the non-proliferation of fossil fuels is essential if states hope to comply with their human rights obligations,” he said in a statement.
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Luisa Gómez, senior attorney at the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), said the court decision was innovative – not only because of what it says, but also because there was a very extensive process behind it.
Aside from the 263 written submissions, the court judges carried out three site visits, holding one hearing in Barbados and two in Brazil, with the aim of reaching communities most affected by climate change. The court said it was “the advisory process with most participation in the tribunal’s history”.
“Historic” moment for climate litigation
CIEL’s Gómez hailed the court decision as “historic” and a “watershed moment”, due to the detailed new tools it creates for litigation and policy-making, and the potential for influencing other human rights courts.
Catalina Fernández, head of Multilateral Human Rights at Chile’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told Climate Home that the court decision sets a “more demanding standard” that can help governments and civil society push climate action forward.
“Each state has different realities and there is no unique recipe for everyone. But we hope that this decision can set a minimum standard,” Fernández said. “The court gives us a hand in this process but we still need political will from governments and civil society.”
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The advisory opinion also provides a clear set of guidelines for countries to bring to the COP30 summit in Belem later this year, said Liliana Ávila, director of human rights and environment at the nonprofit Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense (AIDA).
Gómez, of CIEL, said that the court decision “makes life easier for everyone”, including states and communities wanting to bring forward more climate cases.
“There’s less room for impunity. It’s clear now where climate change comes from – and it’s clear that those responsible need to take measures,” said Gómez.
Other human rights courts have recognised that the failure of states to address climate change can breach human rights, with climate cases increasingly making it to the world’s highest courts, according to a 2025 report by the London School of Economics (LSE).
Last year, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Switzerland had breached the human rights of its citizens by not doing enough to cut planet-warming emissions.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is expected to deliver an advisory opinion on the legal obligation of states to limit climate change later this year. Experts said the ICJ ruling is expected to be influenced by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights’ decision.
The climate-vulnerable Pacific island nation of Vanuatu, which led the global push for an ICJ opinion, also participated in the IACHR proceedings by making a written submission.
Responding to the Americas ruling, Ralph Regenvanu, Vanuatu’s Minister of Climate Change Adaptation, Energy and Environment, noted that all regional and international courts have an important role to play in advancing climate justice.
“Together, they can pave the way for a more integrated approach to international law that addresses the human rights dimensions and remedy the historical climate injustices that the Global South increasingly suffer from in the climate emergency,” he said in a statement.
The post Top Latin American court upholds right to “healthy climate”, urges fossil fuel control appeared first on Climate Home News.
Top Latin American court upholds right to “healthy climate”, urges fossil fuel control
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The number of journalists registered to attend the annual climate negotiations in Bonn has declined this year, as climate reporters have been let go and media coverage of climate issues falls around the world.
Data from UN Climate Change, which runs the two weeks of talks, shows that just 135 media representatives have signed up to attend. Climate Home News analysis of previous data shows this is the lowest figure since 2021, when COVID-19 restrictions limited travel and the Bonn talks were held in a hybrid format to enable online participation.
The number of journalists that actually attend the talks will not be known until later this month but is typically significantly less than are registered. Press conferences, held back-to-back each day by campaign groups, have been sparsely attended in the first few days and often filled mainly with climate campaigners and researchers rather than journalists.
Alexandra Endres, a reporter for German-language website Table Briefings, told Climate Home News in Bonn there are fewer German journalists covering the conference in-person. “I think it is important to have more journalists covering the negotiations because when the climate coverage increases, the interest of the public grows,” she said.
Media outlets that have registered fewer journalists than previous years, or no journalists, include global heavyweights like Reuters, Bloomberg and the BBC, as well as German outlets like Deutsche Welle and ZDF television, and specialist publications like business information service Argus and climate broadcaster We Don’t Have Time.
Activist Harjeet Singh, who is in Bonn advising the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative, said that “the empty press seats here in Bonn are a warning signal. While the world’s gaze is often fixed on the annual COP summits, the real-world consequences of the climate crisis—from financing the fossil fuel transition to protecting vulnerable populations—are being shaped, or ignored, in these mid-year negotiations right now.”
“Journalists are the essential eyes and ears of the public,” he said. “We need them to shine a light on these rooms: hold negotiators accountable, defend the principles of equity and historical responsibility, and ensure that ‘technical’ negotiations do not become an excuse for delay.”
UN Climate Change said they could not comment on the situation at this point in the Bonn talks.
Climate coverage is falling
Outside of Bonn and the official UN climate negotiations, coverage of climate change is falling to lows not seen since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to analysis of newspapers and television reporting conducted by the Media and Climate Change Observatory (MECCO).
MECCO’s head Max Boykoff told Climate Home News that climate coverage in the first five months of 2025 was 35% down on the same period of 2025 and 41% less than in 2021. New analysis by the Yale Programme on Climate Change Communication found a similar fall in climate coverage in 2026.
Boykoff said media attention has been drawn away from climate change to issues like the Iran war and now the World Cup getting underway in North America.
While both stories have climate implications, he said, the media have “failed to connect the dots” on the conflict in the Middle East, with coverage focusing on the politics, air strikes and violence of the war. “Reporters have been pulling up short,” he said.
He added that since 2025 there have been cuts to climate teams at US outlets like the Washington Post, CBS, National Public Radio and the Los Angeles Times. On top of this, the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s Context website has been shut down and Politico recently folded specialist environmental outlet E&E News into its broader energy coverage.
Mark Hertsgaard, head of global journalism collaboration Covering Climate Now, also said that fewer reporters at Bonn is “part of a larger pattern”. He said no US television network sent reporters to the recent Santa Marta conference on transitioning away from fossil fuels “and as a result they missed covering what turned out to be a landmark development in the climate story”.
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“No one can know if the Bonn talks will yield something similar until the [they] actually take place and conclude. But the fewer journalists that are on the scene, the less the world’s people and policymakers will know about that. And that’s a problem,” he said.
Media may also have been put off from attending by a new registration system which is more complicated, especially for freelance journalists. In addition, the rise in jet fuel prices has made travelling by plane to Bonn much more expensive than last year and reporters from many developing countries continue to face hurdles getting visas to enter the Schengen area, of which Germany is part.
Diego Arguedas Ortiz, who led the Oxford Climate Journalism Network from 2022 until it was shut down by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism in 2025, said journalists can’t cover the talks so well remotely.
While press conferences, plenaries and open negotiating sessions are broadcast for the public to watch on the UNFCCC’s website, Ortiz said relying solely on this means “you miss the interviews in the hall”.
“You can´t catch scientists and ministers as they leave the rooms. And the audience is back home suffering. Because audiences are relying on reporters and editors to explain how these seemingly abstract negotiations have daily implications for them,” he explained.
The post Fewer journalists register for Bonn talks, as cuts to climate reporting bite appeared first on Climate Home News.
Fewer journalists register for Bonn talks, as cuts to climate reporting bite
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