The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit [official website] on Monday ruled [opinion, PDF] that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) [official website] acted reasonably when it proposed to list certain populations of bearded seals in Alaska as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act [text, PDF]. Designation of the animal as threatened gives bearded seals the lower of two levels of protection. The appeals court reversed the lower court ruling rejecting the NMFS’ argument that the currently non-endangered species will lose habitat due to climate change in coming decades as unsupported by sufficient evidence. The ruling could create precedent that climate change satisfies the requirements to list a species as threatened. Parties opposing the decision for failing to provide sufficient evidence hope [AP report] the US Supreme Court will consider the issue on appeal.

According to many experts, climate change [JURIST backgrounder] as a result of global greenhouse gas emissions is one of the most pressing and controversial environmental issues facing the international community today. In a similar issue arising in March of 2013 a federal appeals court upheld [JURIST report] a decision to list polar bears as threatened, stating that the agency went through a three-year rulemaking process and determined that, due to the effects of global warming, polar bears are likely to become an endangered species in the foreseeable future. Earlier this month the threshold for entry into force [JURIST report] of the Paris Agreement on combating climate change was achieved. The Paris Agreement is the world’s first comprehensive pact seeking to reduce carbon emissions and halt climate change and will take effect in early November.