Climate change is expected to cause receding coastlines due to rising sea levels. Geological formations like islands, rocks, reefs and other low-tide elevations would be permanently submerged, and this would affect the control of States over the sea if the baseline measurement changed with them. In fact, some lowlying States could conceivably lose their rights to exploit their territorial sea and Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) due to their land territory being submerged. This has serious

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... tions for Statehood in international law, which faces challenges as a consequence of climate change. Therefore, the ILC decided to include the topic 'Sea-level rise in international law' in its program of work at its 70th session and established a study group on issues related to Statehood.