ITLOS Advisory Opinion

The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) has delivered its much-awaited advisory opinion regarding climate change obligations under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). In the opinion, the ITLOS specified that state parties to the UNCLOS have the obligation to take “all necessary measures to prevent, reduce, and control marine pollution from anthropogenic GHG emissions and to endeavor to harmonize their policies in this connection” (para 243). Additionally, the tribunal emphasized that the due diligence obligation of the state parties is a stringent one (para 242). This decision is issued in the wake of the European Court of Human Rights decision related to climate change obligations under the European Human Rights Convention and is another in a series of recent climate change-related international proceedings, such as the ICJ Advisory Opinion on climate change and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Read more on international climate change litigations here.