THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The United Nations' top court has issued a landmark advisory opinion on climate change, its 15 black-robed judges weighing in for the first time on what the court's president called “an existential problem of planetary proportions that imperils all forms of life and the very health of our planet.”

The International Court of Justice's unanimous non-binding opinion, which runs to over 500 pages, was immediately hailed by activists as a turning point in international climate law.

After years of lobbying by island nations who fear they could disappear under rising sea waters , the U.N. General Assembly asked the court in 2023 to answer two questions: What are countries obliged to do under international law to protect the climate and environment from human-cause

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