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PERSPECTIVE article

Front. Clim.
Sec. Climate Law and Policy
Volume 6 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fclim.2024.1474993
This article is part of the Research Topic Climate Change, Natural Resources, and Human Security in Governance and Society: Vulnerabilities and Adaptation Strategies View all 8 articles

Effective control mechanisms of research on climate engineering techniques for the public good – the London Protocol regulatory approach as a role model

Provisionally accepted
Harald Ginzky Harald Ginzky 1*Andreas Oschlies Andreas Oschlies 2*
  • 1 German Federal Environment Agency, Berlin, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
  • 2 GEOMAR Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research Kiel, Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres (HZ), Kiel, Germany

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Climate engineering, including Carbon Dioxide Removal and Solar Radiation Modification techniques, increasingly gets into the public discussion on effective climate change policies. As most of these techniques are still in their infancy, the critical question arises whether and how in situ research and development should be controlled and governed by competent governmental authorities. In this context, public funding may serve as a pivotal factor alongside appropriate regulatory approaches and may itself also be regulated by legal mechanisms. We here argue that the London Protocol, that includes regulation of research into marine geoengineering, is a promising role model also for regulating other climate engineering approaches, including -if ever appropriate-solar radiation modification. We propose to consider the London Protocol as a role model for governance schemes to be developed for emerging research and possible deployment efforts regarding climate engineering.

    Keywords: marine geoengineering, climate engineering, governance, Carbon dioxide removal, solar radiation modification

    Received: 02 Aug 2024; Accepted: 14 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Ginzky and Oschlies. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Harald Ginzky, German Federal Environment Agency, Berlin, 12307, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
    Andreas Oschlies, GEOMAR Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research Kiel, Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres (HZ), Kiel, Germany

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.