The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea has announced that small island states have requested it to offer an opinion on the relationship between efforts to combat climate change and a key U.N. treaty governing maritime activities. This opinion could have significant legal ramifications.
The Hamburg-based U.N. tribunal said it received a request from the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law to render an advisory opinion on the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea.
In particular, the commission wants the U.N. court to spell out what obligations parties to the treaty have in relation to the effects of climate change caused by human activity and on protecting the marine environment from ocean warming and sea level rise. The commission is supported by the Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda and the Pacific island nation of Tuvalu.
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One of the countries most susceptible to the effects of climate change is small island states.
The tribunal said it has added the request to its list of cases.
While it is not clear whether or when an advisory opinion could eventually be issued if the tribunal does provide the treaty’s 168 parties with legal guidance on the issue of climate change it could trigger further cases.
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea has so far been ratified by 168 nations, among them China, India, Russia, and the European Union. The world’s largest historical emitter of greenhouse gases, the United States, is not a party.
Story was adapted from AP.
