Leaders from island nations arrive for a hearing at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Seas in 2023 in Hamburg, GermanyGregor Fischer/AFP/Getty/Grist

This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

Island nations in the Pacific, Caribbean, and West Indies won a major international legal victory this week that puts more pressure on large governments like the European Union and China to curb their carbon emissions.

On Tuesday, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, or ITLOS, in Hamburg, Germany, unanimously ruled that state parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea have an obligation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The 169 parties to the treaty include several of the world’s top emitters: China, India, the European Union, and Russia. The United States, also a big polluter, is not a party to the convention.

The tribunal said in its advisory opinion that greenhouse gases count as marine pollution and that state parties to the convention must........

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