Opinion | The winners in this landmark U.N. climate ruling? It’s the lawyers.

Bjorn Lomborg is president of the Copenhagen Consensus Center, a visiting fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and author of “Best Things First.”

Last month, the International Court of Justice issued a sweeping ruling on the legal duties of states to respond to climate change, demanding “deep, rapid and sustained reductions” in emissions and opening the door to lawsuits for climate reparations. The ruling is a landmark moment in international law that deserves more attention than it has gotten: In essence, the United Nations’ highest court has deemed climate inaction a human rights violation and an infringement of international law.