Special Colloquium: Climate Change and the Seas

durch Arman Sarvarian (CAU visiting professor)

Donnerstag 07.05.2026, 10:00 → 11:15 Europe/Berlin

5-1.213 - PAZIFIK / PACIFIC- Rechte Seite - Großer, unterteilbarer Konferenzraum (GEOMAR - Standort Ostufer / GEOMAR - East Shore)

Abstract:

Global warming is having a profound impact on the seas. A phenomenon not anticipated by States in the course of developing the legal rules governing the oceans since the seventeenth century, in recent years they have had to confront acidification, sea level rise and the decarbonisation of international shipping. Vague rules concerning the protection of the marine environment have become entangled with more precise rules concerning the apportionment of the seas, as natural resources. Even as efforts to promote the fulfilment of the ‘collective temperature target’ of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and 2015 Paris Agreement, competition for fish, hydrocarbons and other dwindling resources becomes ever more intense amidst a changing environmental reality on the seas.

This talk will outline the recent political and legal developments concerning the law on climate change and the international law of the sea. In particular, the 2024 advisory opinion of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, the 2025 advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice and the 2025 final report of the International Law Commission. It will explain how the legal rules for the protection of the marine environment are becoming more detailed and clear even as the rules concerning the consequences of global warming – such as the submergence of islands, loss of biodiversity and marine boundaries – remain contentious and unanswered.

Meeting link:
https://geomar.webex.com/geomar/j.php?MTID=m05cace78009244dce69ff4ccee891aad