Small island states win key climate case in UN court

The UN maritime court on Tuesday ruled in favour of nine small island states who brought a case to seek increased protection of the world's oceans from catastrophic climate change.

Finding that carbon emissions can be considered a sea pollutant, the court said countries have an obligation to take measures to mitigate their effects on oceans.

"Anthropogenic GHG emissions into the atmosphere constitute pollution of the marine environment" under the international treaty UNCLOS, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) ruled in an expert opinion.

Polluting countries therefore have "the specific obligation to take all measures necessary to ensure that... emissions under their jurisdiction or control do not cause damage by pollution to other states and their environment", the court said.

The case was brought in September by nine small countries disproportionately affected by climate change, including Antigua and Barbuda, Vanuatu and Tuvalu.

They asked the Hamburg-based court to issue an opinion on whether carbon dioxide emissions absorbed by the oceans can be considered pollution, and if so, what obligations countries have to address the problem.

The UN treaty binds countries to prevent pollution of the oceans, defining pollution as the introduction of "substances or energy into the marine environment" that harms marine life.

But it does not spell out carbon emissions as a specific pollutant, and the plaintiffs had argued that these emissions should qualify.

The case is seen as the first big international climate justice case involving the world's oceans and experts say it could have far-reaching implications for countries' future climate change obligations.

Ahead of the ruling, the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) said the case was "particularly significant" because it will be the first of three key international court advisory opinions on climate change.

The others are due to be given by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the International Court of Justice.

© Agence France-Presse