ABSTRACT

This chapter addresses each marine geoengineering technique separately, because such an approach can present the analysis of each technique in a more systematic manner. It emphasizes that some of the analysis of the international legal implications on the environmental effects caused by a particular geoengineering technique is made on the basis of computer modelling results rather than clear scientific conclusions. As international rules and regulations are not identically applicable to every geoengineering technique, there is a need to tailor the analysis to each geoengineering technique via a technique-by-technique approach. Four marine geoengineering techniques – ocean fertilization, ocean upwelling, ocean alkalinity addition and marine cloud whitening (MCW) – have some crosscutting issues in the application of contemporary international legal rules and principles. In October 2013, amendments to the London Protocol (LP) listed marine geoengineering, including ocean fertilization, as being explicitly regulated by the LP.