Politics & Law

When we sail a few tons of cargo across the Atlantic and encounter the large ships off Rotterdam that transport thousands of times more, we feel like a tiny David facing a system of Goliaths. But at the stern of the Tres Hombres and other sailing freighters flies the flag of Vanuatu!

According to the International Convention on the Law of the Sea, the heating and acidification of the oceans by increasing amounts of carbon dioxide constitutes pollution of the oceans. This is prohibited under the Convention on the Law of the Sea. This was unanimously established in May 2024 in Hamburg by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ISGH) in an expert opinion for the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law (COSIS).

In March 2023, following an initiative led by Vanuatu and others, the UN General Assembly unanimously endorsed the proposal to refer the issue of climate change to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague: What obligations do states have in the fight against climate change? And what consequences face them if they fail to meet these obligations? The ICJ subsequently issued a landmark advisory opinion.

Discord, cacophony, intrigue – the debate surrounding the decarbonisation of the shipping industry is reminiscent of a disastrous theatre performance. The bone of controversy is CO2 taxes on fuels. The crucial question of whether so much nonsense really needs to be shipped around the globe is completely overlooked.

Vanuatu is fighting desperately to avoid being submerged by rising sea levels caused by climate change. The archipelago has secured a groundbreaking opinion from the International Court of Justice: climate protection is an obligation under international law. Now the US is taking steps to prevent a corresponding resolution from being adopted by the UN General Assembly.

The final draft resolution on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) climate advisory opinion is now available. Vanuatu had submitted an initial draft to member states for discussion in February 2026: the UN General Assembly is to put the ICJ advisory opinion into practice. Due to opposition from the US and others, Vanuatu has watered down the resolution by dropping the call for a climate damage register that had originally been included.

The groundbreaking resolution adopted by the General Assembly on Wednesday 20 May is, according to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, “a powerful affirmation” of international law, climate justice and science. The proposal was put forward and defended against opposition from the US by Vanuatu, under whose flag the Tres Hombres and other sailing cargo ships sail.