New Report on the Prospects of Marine Climate Geoengineering and the Role of International Law

The Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), a Canadian-based think-tank, released a report today focusing on the potential role of marine climate geoengineering approaches, defined as “deliberate intervention in the marine environment for the purpose of climate change mitigation.”

The report, entitled “Governance of Marine Geoengineering,” was co-authored by Kerry Brent, a lecturer in the Faculty of Law at the University of Tasmania, Wil Burns, Co-Director of the Institute for Carbon Removal Law & Policy at American University, and Jeffrey McGee, associate professor in the Faculty of Law and Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies at the University of Tasmania. It is available on the CIGI website.

Many climate scientists and policymakers increasingly believe that so-called carbon dioxide removal approaches, which seek to remove carbon from the atmosphere to reduce radiative forcing, or solar radiation approaches, intended to reduce the amount of incoming solar radiation, will prove critical to meeting the objectives of the Paris Climate Agreement. There is also increasing recognition that sustainability considerations may necessitate deployment of a portfolio of responses, including those based in ocean and coastal environments. This includes marine cloud brightening, a technique to spray salt water into maritime clouds to “whiten” them in a manner that will reflect more incoming solar radiation back to space, ocean iron fertilization, a process to disperse iron into certain regions of the ocean to stimulate production of phytoplankton to increase uptake of carbon dioxide, ocean alkalinity enhancement, a technique that would increase ocean alkalinity resulting in long-term looking up of carbon dioxide in the oceans, and “blue carbon” sequestration of carbon dioxide in mangroves, salt marshes, and seaweed assemblages.

According to CIGI, while these options might help avert passing critical climatic thresholds, many also pose potentially substantial risks, including to the interests of vulnerable nations, and to the global commons. The report thus focuses on how marine geoengineering research and deployment might be governed to ensure adequate characterization of such risks and protection of critical interests, as well as to potentially facilitate use of these approaches should they prove critical.

“International ocean law governance is comprised of a patchwork of agreements and international principles that were not designed specifically for governance of marine geoengineering approaches,” states Kerryn Brent, the report’s lead author, “so they may provide only limited concrete guidance to implementation of any of these approaches.”

“The looming threats posed by unchecked climate change may necessitate consideration of marine geoengineering responses,” states co-author Wil Burns, “however, every effort should be made to protect the interests of vulnerable populations and focusing on principles of equity and justice. International law has an important role to play in this pursuit.”

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