The world court rules that countries must protect the oceans by reducing fossil fuel emissions, while island states fight for survival.
Nine small island states have won a landmark climate change case at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), which ruled that all signatories to a United Nations treaty on marine activities must do more to protect the world’s oceans from climate change.
The court concluded (PDF) that the responsibilities of signatories to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in preventing marine pollution extend to greenhouse gas emissions, which harm the oceans by altering the Earth’s atmosphere.
The island states asked the court to clarify what was considered marine pollution under the convention, in a context of rising oceans, rising ocean temperatures and ocean acidification caused by fossil fuels and other greenhouse gas emissions.
Gaston Browne, prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, one of the countries bringing the case, said the small island nations were “fighting for their survival” due to emissions from big polluters.
“Some will become uninhabitable in the near future due to the inability to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions,” he said. “We demand that major polluters respect international law and stop the catastrophic harm to us before it is too late.”
The 1994 convention, signed by 169 countries, already provides the legal basis for countries to protect the marine environment from polluting substances, including oil from ships, but the court’s ruling recognizes that atmospheric emissions are also harming the oceans.
The court ruled that states had an obligation to act, noting “the high risks of serious and irreversible damage to the marine environment.”
The Small Island States Commission on Climate Change and International Law (COSIS), which brought the case on behalf of nine countries, hailed the world court’s advisory opinion as a “tremendous legal victory”.
“[The court made] history by issuing the first advisory opinion on climate change and the oceans”, stated COSIS.
Island countries have been fighting for decades for more decisive action on climate change and fighting misinformation spread by fossil fuel companies.
The nine states that have joined the COSIS case are Antigua and Barbuda, Niue, Palau, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Tuvalu and Vanuatu, which last year experienced two Category 4 storms in 24 hours.
In addition to more severe and frequent storms, island states also face more gradual changes from climate change, such as the loss of vegetable gardens when salty seawater mixes with groundwater.
Eselealofa Apinelu, representing the South Pacific island of Tuvalu, said Tuesday’s ruling made clear that all states were legally obliged to protect the marine environment, and other states, from the existential threats of climate change.
She called it “an important first step toward holding major polluters accountable.”
The ITLOS case is just one of several international efforts underway to address fossil fuels polluting the oceans.
Dirty fuels used by cargo ships have come under increasing scrutiny from the International Maritime Organization (IMO), while a planned Global Plastics Treaty will address plastic and microplastic pollution.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
