Research · IMO Puts Ocean Carbon Removal Under a Rulebook: First Global Procedure for Marine Geoengineering

Research · IMO Puts Ocean Carbon Removal Under a Rulebook: First Global Procedure for Marine Geoengineering

Parties to the London Convention and London Protocol adopted assessment frameworks on October 9, 2026, for three marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) techniques — ocean fertilization, ocean alkalinity enhancement, and ocean sinking of biomass — creating the first binding international procedure for evaluating ocean-based climate interventions. Governments can now determine, case by case, whether a proposed activity counts as legitimate scientific research and whether it may proceed without unacceptable risk to the marine environment.

The choice of the three methods is deliberate: they are the techniques closest to commercial experimentation, where the line between research and deployment has become hardest to police. The decision lands squarely on the emerging ocean-CDR credit market — developers raising money against future credits, and buyers underwriting those purchases, now have an authoritative definition of what counts as legitimate activity on the water. For the shipping industry, the frameworks will eventually feed into voyage planning and port-state enforcement, since research operations can intersect with shipping lanes and ballast-water rules — one more compliance layer for operators already navigating the IMO's net-zero timetable (MEPC 85, Nov 30–Dec 3).

Original: read here

- Context: https://gcaptain.com/from-policy-to-practice-shippings-regulatory-autumn-puts-proof-on-trial/