Headline:
States agree to regulate marine geoengineering internationally
Countries party to the “London Protocol to the Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes or other Matter” (LC/LP) agreed in mid-October to regulate marine geoengineering globally. The amendment was hailed as a historic achievement for the protection of the marine environment. IASS Project Scientist, Anna-Maria Hubert, whose research examines the legal issues associated with climate engineering, participated in the meeting as advisor to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
The Contracting Parties to the LC/LP have expressed their concern about ocean fertilisation in several non-binding resolutions since the issue was first raised in this forum in 2007. Since then, these countries have cooperated to establish a legally binding regulation for ocean fertilisation, as well as a global, transparent and effective regulatory and control mechanism for other marine geoengineering activities. Public concern over a large-scale ocean fertilisation project carried out off the west coast of Canada in 2012 provided an additional strong incentive to adopt rules to regulate those activities which are potentially harmful to the marine environment.
Many ideas have been proposed for intentionally modifying the marine environment, so-called ‘marine geoengineering’ (or ‘climate engineering’) measures, to combat climate change or which are carried out for other purposes like fisheries enhancement or biofuels production. Chief among these is ocean fertilisation, which has been proposed as a way of enhancing plankton growth over very large areas to draw down CO2 from the atmosphere and store it in the deep ocean. So far, however, the risks and uncertainties associated with these technologies are not fully explored or understood. Given this potential threat, the IASS welcomes this internationally binding regulation as an important contribution to safeguarding our global ocean.
Photo: IMO