Small Islands take Ocean protection case to UN Court

Outside view of the main building at the site of the International Tribual for the Law of the Seas (ITLOS), Sept. 11, 2023 in Hamburg, northern Germany. [AFP]

Leaders of nine small island states turned to the U.N. maritime court on Monday to seek protection of the world's oceans from catastrophic climate change that threatens the very existence of entire countries.

The island states are asking the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) to determine if carbon dioxide emissions absorbed by the oceans can be considered pollution, and if so, what obligations countries have to prevent it.