Whether You Win or Lose, Some Fights Are Worth Fighting’: The Unlikely Origins of the Largest-Ever Climate Case

Published: 23th July ‘2025 | The English Chronicle Desk

What began as a simple idea in a university classroom in the Pacific Islands has now become the largest and most consequential climate case ever presented before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). This landmark legal moment—one that may redefine the climate responsibilities of nations under international law—owes its existence not to powerful governments or international organizations, but to a group of determined students who dared to believe their voices could change the world.

Among them was Cynthia Houniuhi, a young woman from the Solomon Islands whose early life was steeped in the rhythms of island living. Her memories are filled with scenes of childhood innocence: trekking through seawater to attend school, trapping wild birds with her siblings, planting root vegetables with her hands in warm, fertile earth. But threaded through these memories is something darker—an encroaching change in the world around her. When she visited Fanalei, her father’s home island, she saw entire homes swallowed by the sea. The ocean was no longer a giver of life, but an advancing threat. Families had begun to flee inland. What was once a distant scientific concern had become deeply personal.

That realisation gave rise to conviction. And that conviction sparked a movement.

In 2019, Houniuhi and her fellow students, inspired by a lecture on climate justice at the University of the South Pacific, decided to do something unprecedented. They envisioned using international law to hold nations accountable for their inaction on climate change—a concept both simple in its logic and staggering in its ambition. The students launched a campaign that spread across the Pacific and quickly caught global attention. With the support of civil society organisations, lawyers, climate activists, and a growing number of nation-states, their mission gathered momentum.

It was an audacious plan: to seek an advisory opinion from the ICJ that would clarify the obligations of states to act on climate change under existing international law, including human rights and environmental treaties. More than 130 countries have since backed the case, underscoring the gravity of the climate crisis and the global thirst for accountability.

Today, in The Hague, the court is expected to deliver its opinion. Though non-binding, the court’s words carry immense weight. A powerful statement could influence national policies, bolster lawsuits in domestic courts, and pressure lagging governments to take more decisive action to cut emissions and protect vulnerable communities.

But regardless of the verdict, the fight itself has already made history. The case has redefined the scope of youth activism, demonstrating how even the smallest and most isolated communities can wield the levers of international law. It has placed island nations—some of the world’s most affected by rising sea levels—at the moral centre of the global climate debate. And it has forced the world’s most powerful governments to reckon with the legal and ethical consequences of climate inertia.

Cynthia Houniuhi, now a prominent voice for climate justice, remains grounded in the spirit that first motivated her as a student. For her, it was never just about law or politics—it was about people, homes, and futures.

“We may not win everything,” she said in a recent interview, “but whether you win or lose, some fights are worth fighting. Because if we don’t fight for our islands, who will?”

Today, the world watches and waits—not just for a legal opinion, but for a sign that justice and survival can find common ground

Published: 23th July ‘2025 | The English Chronicle Desk