Failure to take action to protect the planet from climate change could violate international law. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has ruled in a advisory opinion regarding states' obligations to curb global warming. A state's failure to take "appropriate measures to protect the climate system may constitute an internationally wrongful act," said Tribunal President Yuji Iwasawa on Wednesday in the verdict announcement in The Hague, the seat of the Court. The ICJ held that climate change treaties establish "binding obligations" for signatory countries, and that failure to comply with these obligations is an "internationally wrongful act" that can give rise to "reparations."