ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Marine Pollution
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2025.1683617
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvances in Marine Environmental Protection: Challenges, Solutions and Perspectives Volume IIView all 61 articles
From Marine Pollutant Characterization to Regional Practice: Implications of ITLOS Advisory Opinion No. 31 for the Maritime Sectors and Hainan FTP's Governance Adaptation
Provisionally accepted
Tingting Wang1
Yue Sun2*- 1Law School, Ningbo University, Ningbo, China
- 2Shandong Jiaotong University, Jinan, China
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Advisory Opinion No.31 issued by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) identified anthropogenic GHG emissions as pollution to the marine environment. According to the interpretation of this opinion, States Parties of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) bear stringent due diligence, legislative, and enforcement obligations on in reducing ship-source carbon emissions. This opinion may trigger a series of ripple effects on the global maritime sector. The States Parties shall coordinate their domestic shipping legislation and enforcement measures with international decarbonization standards. As a result, the speed and breadth of shipping decarbonization will improve, and the port industry will synergistically promote green energy infrastructure. As China's only Free Trade Port (FTP )and the special province connecting East Asian and Southeast Asian countries, Hainan Province is suggested to monitor advancements in global energy technology and track orders for "green vessels" to forecast future demand for green shipping fuels accurately; establish "green shipping corridors" through regional This is a provisional file, not the final typeset article cooperation mechanisms among the South China Sea region; apply preferential national policies for pilot programs in green shipping energy supply by use of the FTP status.
Keywords: shipping decarbonization, ITLOS Advisory Opinion No. 31, port cooperation inthe South China Sea region, Green Shipping Corridor, climate change and the law of the sea
Received: 11 Aug 2025; Accepted: 17 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang and Sun. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yue Sun, sunyue19@sjtu.edu.cn
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