Small island states hail ocean court victory on greenhouse gases
A global maritime court has found that greenhouse gases constitute marine pollution, a major breakthrough for small island states threatened by the rise in sea levels caused by global warming.
![Small island states hail ocean court victory on greenhouse gases](https://i.cbc.ca/1.7210305.1716334766!/cpImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/16x9_620/germany-climate-change.jpg)
![Representatives from small island states in the Pacific and Caribbean sit in a courtroom before a session of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in Hamburg, Germany on Tuesday. In its first climate-related judgment, the tribunal said emissions from fossil fuels and other planet-warming gases that are absorbed by the oceans count as marine pollution. A representative with a flower in her hair and other representatives of a group of nine small island states in the Pacific and Caribbean sit in a courtroom.](https://i.cbc.ca/1.7210305.1716334766!/cpImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/16x9_620/germany-climate-change.jpg)
A global maritime court has found that greenhouse gases constitute marine pollution, a major breakthrough for small island states threatened by the rise in sea levels caused by global warming.