Success in safeguarding the global commons will not happen in a single moment, nor will it ever reach a point of being ‘achieved.’
Stewarding our only home is an ongoing responsibility, requiring continuous care and attention. This stewardship is now, according to the highest court in the world, a legal obligation. In July 2025, following oral testimony from people from all over the world on the question of the obligation of States with regard to climate change, the International Court of Justice unanimously agreed that:
States have a duty to prevent significant harm to the environment by acting with due diligence and to use all means at their disposal to prevent activities carried out within their jurisdiction or control from causing significant harm to the climate system and other parts of the environment, in accordance with their common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities;
States have a duty to co-operate with each other in good faith to prevent significant harm to the climate system and other parts of the environment, which requires sustained and continuous forms of co-operation by States when taking measures to prevent such harm.”
This historic advisory opinion will significantly influence future international environmental governance. It will also inform future climate-related litigation and policy at both the international and domestic levels, including the regulation of private companies and industries. It represents a huge step forward for our movement as a whole. It is an extraordinary showcase of how small groups of determined people can change the world. This historic decision was brought to the fore by a small group of law students from Vanuatu, who helped ensure the subsequent support of 130 nations.
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The ICJ's Advisory Opinion arrived 6 years after a group of 27 students from the University of the South Pacific began campaigning on this issue, and 2 years since the UNGA adopted a resolution requesting the advisory opinion.
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The Opinion follows similar conclusions on states’ climate obligations; in 2024, the European Court of Human Rights recognized that insufficient climate action can constitute a violation of human rights, following a claim by a group of over 2,000 senior Swiss women against the Swiss state.
Every effort taken towards safeguarding the global commons, no matter how large or how small adds up, and while it can be hard to see progress manifesting in our troubled world, it’s worth remembering that systems change is not linear: we don’t always know what is going to make the difference, but we do know that in the end systems do shift, and all the actions people take add up to a new world. Every action we take to steward our only home for present and future generations helps to contribute to major transformations.
That’s why the Alliance also celebrates the Pact for the Future and the Declaration for Future Generations, signed by global leaders at the UN’ Summit of the Future in September 2024. The Pact and the Declaration, outline how the Alliance can safeguard the well-being and needs of future generations, is a milestone in the global movement for long-term decision-making. It aims to modernize international cooperation and equip international institutions to address current challenges and prepare for the future. The declaration encourages governments to leverage information tools, strategic foresight, goal-setting, and other mechanisms to anticipate risks and futureproof policies at various levels.
Meanwhile, in 2024 the Accountability Accelerator awarded over $2 million in grants to NGOs, civil society groups, journalists, and others advancing accountability for nature. It launched the world’s first validation service for science-based targets for nature, helping set companies on the path to nature action. Through 15 convenings across 20 countries, the Accelerator connected grassroots watchdogs to international experts and brought companies, civil society and funders together to coordinate collective action.
Science-based targets for nature validation process from the Accountability Accelerator
The impact? Grantees have used this support to secure over $3 million in additional funding to scale their tools and increase pressure on some of the world’s most powerful actors. For every $1 invested in Accountability Accelerator over the last 3 years, they’ve delivered a systemic impact worth over $4. This includes helping fund Southern Africa’s First Accountability App for mobile phones, which is enhancing grassroots monitoring capacity, increasing transparency, and fostering civic engagement. It includes strengthening the Free Prior Informed Consent (FPIC) guidelines in the Republic of Congo (RoC) and Liberia; and holding investors accountable in Guinea, where bauxite mining has caused widespread environmental destruction, displacement, and loss of livelihoods.
Activism doesn’t only come in the form of legal cases, reports, groundbreaking journalism or tracking corporate behaviour. It also comes in the form of cultural expression like art, drama and music. The GCA was therefore really proud to co-host the Inaugural Global Artivism Conference in Tshwane (Pretoria), with diverse partners to help foster cultural activism for a safe and just world. Together with the Riky Rick Foundation for the Promotion of Artivism, Community Arts Network, and Tshwane University of Technology, Earth HQ helped champion cultural activism for a safe and just future. The conference highlighted the pivotal role of creative expression and community solidarity in advocating for societal and environmental issues. Through a series of keynote speeches, panel discussions, interactive workshops, performances, art exhibitions, participants were able to exchange ideas and build the transformative power of the arts in activism.
Earth HQ planning for the Global Artivism Conference
The Global Commons Alliance also recognizes that progress has been made toward our missions of a just world on a safe planet by countless grassroots and community groups all over the world, most of which never make the headlines. The solutions journalist platform Fix The News, is filled with uplifting evidence of this.
Over the next year our work with this wider ecosystem will bloom. The Global Commons Alliance is proud to work with all of you toward equitably safeguarding, restoring, and governing the global commons that we all inherit and share. Today, and far into our collective future.
Thank you to all of our donors, supporters and partners.
We especially thank the following funders for their trust in and support of the GCA, either as a whole, or via one of the original members:
Altman Foundation; Bosch Stiftung, Robert; Children’s Investment Fund Foundation; ClimateWorks Foundation; COP27 Nature Zone Consortium; EarthX; Generation Foundation; Global Environment Facility; The Tiina and Antti Herlin Foundation; Hewlett Foundation; Knight Foundation; Laudes Foundation; MAVA Foundation; Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation; New Venture Fund (GDF); Oak Foundation; Open Society Foundation; Porticus; Skoll Foundation; Swiss Philanthropy Foundation; Walton Family Foundation; KR Foundation; Rockefeller Foundation; Planetary Guardian/Virgin Unite; Global Challenges Foundation; Formas – a Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development; and the Frontiers Research Foundation.