47. Marine Environmental Protection and Climate Change

The rules governing marine environmental protection and climate change are diverse and range from direct regulatory approaches addressing the effects of climate change on the marine environment to rules targeting their mitigation. Nonetheless, it is remarkable that most rules addressing marine environmental protection and climate change, especially the most recent, tackle this issue indirectly, from the viewpoint of marine environmental protection. This chapter illustrates this “environmental protection approach” by assessing current and emerging regulations targeting marine climate change, as well as some of its limitations. Discussing the rules addressing the major causes of climate change, as well as those mitigating its effects, the chapter argues that climate change has become a major and cross cutting issue of the international rules addressing environmental protection. While this may be a viable and legitimate way to address the major effects of climate change, it is still questionable whether the established framework is far reaching enough to address the root causes of climate change and its impacts on the global marine environment.