Introduction Parties to the 1972 Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter (London Convention) and the 1996 Protocol to the Convention (London Protocol)—two international treaties that aim to protect to the marine environment from human activities—are set to meet in the last week of October 2025. […]
Negative Emissions
The field of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is ethically and technically complex. It encompasses a wide range of approaches – from tree planting to ocean alkalinity enhancement to electrochemical capture – each with their own delivery timelines, costs, and ecological impacts. They raise common concerns: Are they a distraction from […]
The climate crisis has necessitated a wave of bold innovation. As new climate mitigation strategies have been developed, the law has often failed to keep up. This is especially clear in the ocean, where marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) projects – techniques that use the ocean to remove and store […]
In the 2015 Paris Agreement, the international community agreed to “strengthen the global response to climate change” by limiting the “increase in global average temperatures to well below 2oC above pre-industrial levels,” and ideally to 1.5oC. As recognized in the Agreement, to stay within these limits, global greenhouse gas emissions […]
As global efforts to tackle climate change intensify, attention is turning to carbon dioxide removal (“CDR”)—strategies that draw carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it for long periods. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (“IPCC”) has emphasized that CDR will be necessary, alongside deep emissions reductions, to limit global […]
The second Trump Administration’s first 100 days dealing with carbon management and negative emissions can be summed up in one word – incoherence. The administration has shown some signs of support for efforts to capture carbon dioxide at power plants and other industrial facilities and remove carbon dioxide directly from […]
Last year, for the first time, global temperatures exceeded 1.5oC above pre-industrial levels. This follows a decade of “record-breaking temperatures,” with the World Meteorological Organization concluding that “the past ten years 2025-2024 are the ten warmest years on record.” Reversing this trend requires urgent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions […]
On March 4, 2025, the Supreme Court handed down an important ruling in City and County of San Francisco v. Environmental Protection Agency. In a 5-4 decision, the Court curtailed the Environmental Protection Agency’s (“EPA”) authority under the Clean Water Act (“CWA”) to issue pollutant discharge permits. The case involved […]