Plan Sea: The Potential Role of Marine-Based Carbon Dioxide Removal for Combatting Climate Change

In the ensuing years after the entry into force of the Paris Agreement, it has become increasingly obvious that achievement of its temperature objectives will require both aggressive emissions reduction initiatives and large-scale deployment of carbon dioxide removal/negative emissions technologies to either avoid passing critical climatic thresholds or address temperature “overshoot” scenarios. While much of the early research of carbon dioxide removal methods focused on terrestrial approaches, there has been increasing attention to the potential role of the world’s oceans given both sustainability considerations and the fact that oceans already serve as a huge carbon sink, with much additional potential for storing carbon. These options include ocean iron fertilization, enhanced ocean alkalinization, ocean upwelling/downwelling, and blue carbon approaches.

However, research in this context, as well as potential large-scale deployment of such options, also pose potentially substantial risks to marine environments and key economic stakeholders. Moreover, there is likely to be substantial public backlash to research absent the existence of a sound regulatory framework for risk assessment, monitoring, and public deliberation.

This presentation will include the potential risks and benefits posed by different ocean-based geoengineering options. It will also include a discussion of regulatory efforts to date by international treaty regimes, and other potentially pertinent regimes, including those with a marine regulatory focus, as well as the potential role of the UNFCCC/Paris Agreement.

Dr. Wil Burns

Associate Director

Environmental Policy & Culture program at Northwestern University

He is the Co-Founding Director of the Institute for Responsible Carbon Removal at American University. Previously, he served as the Founding Director of the Energy Policy & Climate program at Johns Hopkins University. He has also taught at the University of Chicago, Stanford University, and the University of California-Berkeley. He also served as Assistant Secretary of State for Policy for the state of Wisconsin and worked in the environmental non-profit sector for more than twenty years.

He is the former Co-Chair of the International Environmental Law Section of the American Branch of the International Law Association, President of the Association of Environmental Studies & Sciences (AESS). He was the 2019 recipient of AESS’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Scholarship and Service in the field. His research agenda includes climate geoengineering, climate loss and damage, and the effectiveness of the European Union’s Emissions Trading System. He received his Ph.D. in International Law from the University of Wales-Cardiff School of Law and is the author of more than 90 publications.