In a long-awaited victory, the UN Human Rights Council recently recognised, for the first time, that having a healthy environment constitutes a human right. Council resolution 48/13 specifically identifies “the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.” Thereafter, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights “called on States to take bold actions to give prompt and real effect to the right to a healthy environment.” This call, however, raises anew vital questions about potential transformative paths forward in the US, whose government has long been hostile to notions of environmental human rights—and whose officials indeed worked to forestall the Council’s landmark resolution.