In May 2026, the UN General Assembly went further, adopting a resolution led by Vanuatu that gave the Court’s legal opinion political weight. The legal opinion does not reinforce coastlines against the next storm or support communities facing repeated landslides and floods. It is a Pacific-designed, Pacific-led financing mechanism built to directly move climate finance to the communities that need it, on terms that make sense for small island economies. The legal architecture the ICJ has confirmed says that finance, technology, and cooperation are not generous ‘extras’, but are legal obligations. The Pre-COP in Fiji and Tuvalu, and COP31 in Türkiye, are where we must move from legal clarity to directing climate finance to follow.