Author ORCID Identifier
0000-0002-8409-3069
Abstract
For much of modern history, the ocean was treated as a boundless resource rather than as a living system central to planetary climate stability. Scientific advances over the past two decades have revealed the ocean’s indispensable role in regulating climate by absorbing more than 90 percent of excess heat and nearly a third of anthropogenic carbon dioxide. Yet this buffering capacity is eroding as unchecked greenhouse gas emissions drive warming, acidification, and sea level rise. Protecting ocean health has therefore become inseparable from stabilizing the climate, making ocean stewardship and climate action an indivisible imperative.
This article traces the evolution of legal and policy frameworks from the law of the sea to contemporary climate regimes, showing how the ocean has remained peripheral in early treaties but is now moving to the center of climate law. It examines emerging institutions and jurisprudence—including the 2023 Agreement on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ Agreement), recent advisory opinions of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ), and the London Convention and Protocol—as they address the urgent need for carbon removal, including ocean-based approaches. Particular attention is given to equity and the leadership of small island and low-lying states. The article concludes by assessing whether overlapping regimes advance or hinder climate stabilization and considers how UN80 reforms could enable more coherent and effective ocean-climate governance.
Recommended Citation
Kilaparti Ramakrishna
(2025)
"From Margins to Mandates: The Ocean’s Emerging Role in Climate Law and Policy,"
New England Journal of Public Policy: Vol. 37:
Iss.
2, Article 6.
Available at:
https://scholarworks.umb.edu/nejpp/vol37/iss2/6