The Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Agreement and its Role in Governance of Marine Carbon Dioxide Removal

[Geoengineering News]

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=6023674

Authors: William C. G. Burns, Romany Webb

13 January 2026

Abstract

In the last decade, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, as well as other scientific and policy bodies, have recognized that meeting the objectives of the Paris Agreement will require both far more aggressive efforts to decarbonize the world economy and the large-scale deployment of so-called carbon dioxide removal technologies. Given the tremendous role that oceans already play in sequestering carbon, there has naturally been great interest in the potential of marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) approaches as part of a portfolio of carbon removal options. However, while mCDR approaches might facilitate the drawdown of substantial amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, they also pose risks to communities and ocean ecosystems. To date, governance of these approaches has occurred through a patchwork of regimes, none of which ever contemplated mCDR when they were established. This article suggests that the Biodiversity Beyond Jurisdiction Agreement, which will enter into force in January of 2026, and which actively discussed mCDR during its negotiation, might serve a critical role in coordinating the responses of various regimes and institutions to marine carbon dioxide removal and establishing important guardrails for research and potential deployment.

Source: SSRN

[Richard Smith]

Greetings all. 

I'm Rick Smith, stumbled across thos group by accident and I figured this article would be as good as any to join the conversation. 

I've long been interested in geoengineering to help fix the earth. Lord knows we have done enough of it to screw things up. 

It seems to me, after reading the article, the clock is ticking in terms of getting a viable mCDR project started with minimal overhead, at least in the developed world. The additional burden of an Environmental Impact Statement on top of other mandatory requirements may prove too burdensome for all but a top university marine program. 

Thoughts?