Available in Russian
Author: Alexander Solntsev
DOI: 10.21128/2226-2059-2024-4-38-49
Keywords: climate change; marine pollution; anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions; UN Convention on the Law of the Sea; Paris Agreement; International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea; advisory opinion
In a situation where international climate treaties do not establish firm commitments in the area of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, leaving significant room for state discretion in its actions, there is a growing need to fill the gaps in the regulation of measures to combat climate change, and international courts are now called upon to play an important role in this process. In 2023, the International Court of Justice and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights received requests for advisory opinions on climate change issues (from the UN General Assembly and from Chile and Colombia, respectively). The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea received a request on 12 December 2022 and on 21 May 2024 issued an advisory opinion on the obligations of states parties to the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea in the field of protecting the marine environment from anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. The request for an advisory opinion was filed by the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law, established by two island states (Antigua and Barbuda and Tuvalu). The case took one and a half years to consider, and the text of the advisory opinion was approved unanimously by the judges. The tribunal noted that anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases are a pollutant within the meaning of the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (Article 1, paragraph 4) and, accordingly, states have specific obligations to prevent, reduce and control pollution of the marine environment resulting from anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases. This article examines this advisory opinion in detail, noting its potential impact on the formation of legal positions of the International Court of Justice and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which will also issue advisory opinions on climate change in the near future.
About the author: Alexander Solntsev – Candidate of Sciences (Ph.D.) in Law, Associate Professor, Deputy Head of the Department of International Law in Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia named after Patrice Lumumba, Moscow, Russia.
Citation:
Solntsev A. (2024) Mezhdunarodnyy tribunal po morskomu pravu v poiskakh konsensusa: Konsul'tativnoe zaklyuchenie ot 21 maya 2024 goda ob izmenenii klimata [International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in search of consensus: Advisory opinion of 21 May 2024 on climate change]. Mezhdunarodnoe pravosudie, vol.14, no.4, pp.38–49. (In Russian).
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