[OpinioJuris] Interview with Joyeeta Gupta on protecting the public interest in times of climate change
Published 24 November 2025
In an interview for OpinioJuris conducted by researcher Stephanie Triefus, international environment and development scholar Joyeeta Gupta reflects on urgent global challenges in climate governance, calling for transformative action, legal innovation, and a more just sharing of the planet’s remaining ecological space.
Professor Gupta, who will speak at the 10th Annual T.M.C. Asser Lecture in The Hague on Wednesday, has long argued that the international community needs to reframe climate targets not just in terms of 'safe' boundaries, but also 'just' ones.
She warns that delaying structural change is dangerous: “The CO₂ budget for 1.5°C will be over in three years,” she says, stressing that much more radical policy and collective commitment are needed. For Gupta, only a serious shift in mentality, such as the global solidarity prompted by COVID, can trigger the necessary action to phase out fossil fuels: addressing climate change “will require major structural change to the way we live”.
International legal responsibility
Gupta welcomes recent advisory opinions on state climate obligations from the International Court of Justice and Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which she believes are a “major step forward because they try to counter the power politics of states”. Gupta is “very hopeful that (inter)national law will play its part in reducing harm to people”, including through the burgeoning number of climate litigation cases against governments and corporations.
Safe and just earth systems boundaries
Drawing on her work with the Earth Commission, Gupta elaborates on her concept of 'safe and just boundaries'. She explains that while a 1.5°C limit might be seen as 'safe' for Earth system stability, a lower 'just' boundary of around 1°C better reflects the human rights implications and the suffering already being inflicted on vulnerable populations.
Gupta also critiques existing global governance models. She dismisses neoliberal market-based approaches as socially unjust and environmentally ineffective and calls for a 'social practice model' rooted in values like reciprocity, solidarity, and shared responsibility. She argues that only a multilateral, polycentric governance system, combining local and global decision-making, can contribute to the project of sharing our Earth in a just manner.
Read the full interview here.
