Law of the Sea and Geoengineering

This chapter assesses the regulation of marine geoengineering under the international law of the sea. Marine geoengineering is a notion that covers a broad range of activities which must, first and foremost, be measured against the requirements of the international law of the sea. The sovereign rights and jurisdiction of the coastal State under Article 56 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea are not applicable when marine geoengineering activities have left the experimental phase and are carried out for the purpose of carbon dioxide removal (CDR). As far as marine geoengineering activities are concerned, specific reference must then naturally be made to the international law of the sea, but other international law regimes such as international environmental law remain, as far as their scope is concerned, potentially applicable. Large-scale deployment of ocean iron fertilization for CDR purposes is therefore not covered by the Meeting of the Parties resolution.