Published: May 22nd, 2024,
Last updated: May 28th, 2025

Small island nations have won a landmark victory at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) in Hamburg: On Tuesday, the Tribunal confirmed their legal claim for more climate action. In an advisory opinion, the 21 judges unanimously agreed that greenhouse gases are a form of marine pollution. This means all 169 member states of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea from 1982 have climate action obligations.