This Climate Emergency Forum episode brings environmental lawyer and policy analyst Dan Galpern back to discuss how climate action is colliding with the global rule of law. Host Herb Simmens, joined by regular panelists Dr. Peter Carter and climate scientist Paul Beckwith, asks Galpern to unpack a landmark advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice that clarifies states’ legal duties to tackle climate change. The conversation explains how these obligations arise not only from climate treaties like the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement, but also from deeper principles of international law such as the duty not to harm other states and to protect a stable climate system.
This video was recorded on January 28th, 2026, and published on February 2nd, 2026, and represents the opinions of the discussion participants.
Against that legal backdrop, the panel explores the U.S. administration’s announced withdrawal from the UNFCCC and dozens of other international agreements, treating it as part of a broader assault on the rules‑based international order and on constitutional checks and balances within the United States. Galpern details the practical and symbolic consequences if the US became the first country to leave the climate convention, including the risk that allies might follow and that reporting and cooperation mechanisms could unravel. He also raises the unresolved constitutional question of whether a president can unilaterally exit a Senate‑ratified treaty that is part of the “supreme law of the land,” and outlines how Congress and the courts might still intervene.
Throughout the dialogue, Carter and Beckwith widen the lens to the social and geopolitical crisis: rising authoritarianism, “rogue state” fossil politics, and the lived impacts of extreme weather on millions of people. Galpern pushes back against despair, emphasizing that Trump is not “the United States,” that many Americans and people worldwide are resisting, and that the ICJ opinion provides new legal tools for youth and other plaintiffs to pursue climate justice even if governments abandon formal climate treaties. The episode concludes with a clear call for public engagement, especially urging US viewers to press their senators to defend international climate law and keep the door open for a future administration to rejoin and strengthen global cooperation.
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Dr. Peter Carter - MD, Expert IPCC Reviewer and the director of the Climate Emergency Institute.
Paul Beckwith - Climate Systems Scientist. Professor at the University of Ottawa’s Paleoclimatology Laboratory as well as at Carleton University
Herb Simmens - Author, Co-founder of the Healthy Planet Action Coalition (HPAC), Climate Emergency Board Member and former college instructor.
Charles Gregoire - Electrical Engineer, Webmaster and IT prime for FacingFuture.Earth & the Climate Emergency Forum; Climate Reality Leader
Heidi Brault - Climate Reality Leader, BA(Psychology), Library & Information Technician Diploma - Video production and website assistant - Organizer and convener, Metadata technician, COP Team Lead for FacingFuture.Earth and the Climate Emergency Forum.
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