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Climate change International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) Law of the Sea Convention (UNCLOS) Marine pollution

The Relationship between the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the UN Climate Change Regime: What Role for Article 237 UNCLOS?

By: Philipp P Nickels (Research Fellow and PhD Candidate, NCLOS, Faculty of Law, UiT)

PDF: https://site.uit.no/nclos/wp-content/uploads/sites/179/2024/04/The-Relationship-between-the-LOSC-and-the-UN-Climate-Change-Regime-NCLOS-blog.pdf

Matters commented on: request for an advisory opinion, ITLOS, COSIS, inter-regime relationships

1 Introduction*

On 12 December 2022, the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law (COSIS) submitted a request to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) to render an advisory opinion. In its request, COSIS asked ITLOS to clarify ‘the specific obligations of State Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea [UNCLOS] […] to prevent, reduce and control pollution of the marine environment in relation to the deleterious effects that result or are likely to result from climate change’ as well as ‘to protect and preserve the marine environment in relation to climate change impacts’ more broadly (Request for an Advisory Opinion).