UN backs historic climate crisis ruling, despite US attempts to stop resolution

Countries like Vanuatu in the Pacific have watched their homelands slowly disappear in recent decades as the climate changes.

The UN has voted 141-8 to adopt a resolution backing a world court opinion that countries have a legal obligation to address climate change, with the US – the world’s biggest historical emitter – among the small group opposing it.

UN secretary general, António Guterres, said the general assembly vote, in which 28 countries abstained, underscored that governments are responsible for protecting citizens from the “escalating climate crisis”.