Sowing Seeds Uncertain: Ocean Iron Fertilization, Climate Change, and the International Environmental Law Framework
27 Pace Envtl. L. Rev. 555 (2010)
44 Pages Posted: 21 Jul 2016 Last revised: 26 Jul 2016
Date Written: January 2, 2010
Abstract
In a world plagued by the effects of climate change, ocean iron fertilization and other geoengineering techniques could help to respond and adapt to this global environmental crisis. Ocean iron fertilization involves adding iron to the sea to artificially stimulate the rapid growth of phytoplankton, whose photosynthetic activity could potentially absorb enough heat-trapping carbon dioxide to help cool the atmosphere of the Earth. Nevertheless, the international community, consistent with its reactions to other science-inspired responses to modern problems, has approached the promise of ocean iron fertilization with a half-hearted embrace and a surplus of healthy skepticism.
This article explores the promise and perils of ocean iron fertilization and the intricacies of its regulation under international environmental law. Part I examines the science of ocean iron fertilization and its strengths and limitations as a strategy to mitigate climate change. Part II reviews the overlapping international legal regimes that govern ocean fertilization-the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the CBD, and the London Convention and Protocol — and the applicability of those regimes to ocean iron fertilization projects. Part III addresses the controversy and conflicting legal obligations at issue in the LOHAFEX project to illustrate the need for a new legal framework to govern ocean iron fertilization. Part IV proposes a new international regulatory framework to govern ocean iron fertilization. This framework would harmonize incongruous treaty obligations by bringing all classes of activity under UNCLOS with permitting and arbitration authority delegated to the International Maritime
Organization (IMO). It would also seek to harness the capital. and innovation of private enterprise by allowing those entities that can prove that their carbon sequestration efforts are effective and benign to conduct ocean iron fertilization projects and sell carbon credits.
Keywords: Climate Change, Ocean Iron Fertilization, Environmental Law, LOHAFEX, Convention on Biological Diversity, Phytoplankton
JEL Classification: K32, K33
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation