Climate Protection & Restoration Initiative

One of the remarkable aspects of the World Court’s far-reaching and erudite 2025 opinion on State obligations in respect of climate change was that all 15 Justices voted without dissent for its central determinations.

In particular, the Court, among other things:

Unanimously assessed that the major climate change treaties “set forth binding obligations for States parties to ensure the protection of the climate system and other parts of the environment from anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions,”
Unanimously determined “that customary international law sets forth obligations for States to ensure the protection of the climate system and other parts of the environment from anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions,”
Unanimously found that State parties to the Vienna Convention, the Montreal Protocol, the Kigali Amendment, the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the Desertification Convention, retain “obligations under these treaties to ensure the protection of the climate system and other parts of the environment from anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions,”
Unanimously provided that State “parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea have an obligation to adopt measures to protect and preserve the marine environment, including from the adverse effects of climate change and to co-operate in good faith,”
Unanimously held “that States have obligations under international human rights law to respect and ensure the effective enjoyment of human rights by taking necessary measures to protect the climate system and other parts of the environment.”

Read more: https://cprclimate.org/hiding-in-plain-sight/

Petition: https://cprclimate.org/2026-petition-to-the-united-states-senate/

The behemoth was smack dab in front of me. Unforgettable on reflection, yet in the moment I mistook it for a boulder.

It was years back. I was ambling north, along an alternately sandy and rocky shore, near Half Moon Bay, CA, lost in thought, with the sun settling to my left into the Pacific. It lay across my path, about 16 feet long, and a good 4 feet high at its middle (~ 13-14 feet in girth, I’d say).

I set to hop that “boulder,” but paused at the last as it stirred and then, with disdain, snorted through its proboscis. Awakened, I retreated and gave that magnificent bull the wide berth he so deserved.

Continue reading: https://cprclimate.org/for-the-love-of-elephant-seals/

See the petition: https://cprclimate.org/2026-petition-to-the-united-states-senate/

In the end there were “141 votes in favour, eight against and 28 abstentions,” according to a UN News account.

By that strong, if curious, margin the United Nations General Assembly passed an extraordinary statement yesterday, one that emphasized that “climate change is an unprecedented challenge of civilizational proportions and that the wellbeing of present and future generations of humankind depends on our immediate and urgent response to it.”

Read more:
https://cprclimate.org/the-united-nations-stands-up/

See the petition:
https://cprclimate.org/2026-petition-to-the-united-states-senate/

Joins Call on Congress to Halt Trump II Unilateral Withdrawal from Framework Convention

We are pleased to report here that Dr. James E. Hansen has signed our citizens’ petition to Congress to Remain-In the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Read more:
https://cprclimate.org/james-hansen-signs-petition/

Sign our petition:
https://cprclimate.org/2026-petition-to-the-united-states-senate/

Why did the State Department Formally Withdraw the Nation from the Framework Convention?

Marco Rubio serves the Trump II Administration as Secretary of State, acting National Security Advisor, and, increasingly,1 its principal defender of the unlawful and futile U.S.-Israel war against Iran.

Read more:

https://cprclimate.org/records-request-of-the-state-department/

Petition:
https://cprclimate.org/2026-petition-to-the-united-states-senate/

Tell Congress it is (well-past) time to step-it-up on climate!
The Trump II administration’s disavowal of the U.S. commitment on climate takes many forms.

There is, of course:

It’s dogged and unlawful boosterism of oil, gas and coal production,
It’s repeal of the Clean Air Act Endangerment Finding and associated vehicle greenhouse gas standards, and
It’s still-pending repeal of greenhouse gas emissions standards for power plants.
But none of the many Trump II depredations on climate matches its attempted unilateral withdrawal from the world climate treaty.

Read more:
https://cprclimate.org/on-this-earthday-1/

Petition:
https://cprclimate.org/2026-petition-to-the-united-states-senate/

Many governments today seem alarmed by a perceived crisis of migration pressure. Yet, there appears to be little political awareness of the massive global mass-migration pressure that is building because of deadly heat, drought, and associated water shortages and hunger. Heat impacts are felt immediately, while drought impacts accumulate over years to decades. These combined impacts will render large parts of the tropical and subtropical regions uninhabitable within decades, and at the same time seriously threaten global food security. This cocktail will increase migration pressure many times over, both directly and by fueling conflicts.

Read more:
https://cprclimate.org/a-clarion-warning-on-migration-and-climate/

Petition:
https://cprclimate.org/2026-petition-to-the-united-states-senate/

Guest opinion by Robert Sussman. Originally published as part of the Environmental Policy Institute’s Environmental Forum. Reprinted here with the kind permission of EPI and the author.

———

2025 was a challenging year for the global response to climate change.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which was ratified by the United States and 197 other parties, has endured since the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. Climate negotiations under the Convention have ebbed and flowed for more than three decades but no signatory has previously walked away from the Convention and denounced climate change as a hoax.

Read more:
https://cprclimate.org/the-global-fallout-from-americas-climate-retreat/

Earlier today, a twice-elected U.S. President declared that “[a] whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.”

The declaration was consistent with the same president’s message of Sunday, in which he pronounced that today, Tuesday, would be “Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!! Open the F**kin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH!”

Read more:
https://cprclimate.org/a-moral-question/

Petition:
https://cprclimate.org/2026-petition-to-the-united-states-senate/

By unanimous vote, the CPR Initiative Board of Directors calls on Congress to “impose a moratorium on any further prosecution of, and otherwise terminate the present war against Iran.”

Read more:
https://cprclimate.org/congress-must-terminate-the-war/