Proelss, Alexander and Steenkamp, Robert C. (2022) Geoengineering: Methods, Associated Risks and International Liability. In: Corporate Liability for Transboundary Environmental Harm - An International and Transnational Perspective. , ed. by Gailhofer, Peter, Krebs, David, Proelss, Alexander, Schmalenbach, Kirsten and Verheyen, Roda. Springer, Cham, pp. 419-503. ISBN 978-3-031-13263-6 DOI 10.1007/978-3-031-13264-3_9.

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Abstract

Climate change arguably constitutes one of the greatest risks to the long-term health of the world’s environment. In 2015, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) highlighted that the Earth’s climate system has consistently been warming since the 1950s and that a “large fraction of anthropogenic climate change resulting from CO2 emissions is irreversible on a multi-century to millennial time scale, except in the case of a large net removal of CO2 from the atmosphere over a sustained period”. Initial responses to climate change revolved around States attempting to reduce, rather than remove, greenhouse gas emissions. However, as the global economy expands, greenhouse gas emissions have continued to rise and cooperative arrangements aimed at reducing emissions have had limited, if any, impact. If recent predictions are to be believed, the remaining “carbon budget” needed to prevent average global temperatures from increasing by more than 1.5 °C may be exhausted by 2030. Climate Analytics estimates that the current Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) made by States under the Paris Agreement indicate that average global temperatures will rise by 2.8 °C by 2100—almost double the stipulated efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels mentioned in Article 2(1)(a) of the Paris Agreement. The recent IPCC Special Report on 1.5 °C Global Warming concludes that without “increased and urgent mitigation ambition in the coming years, leading to a sharp decline in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, global warming will [cause] irreversible loss of the most fragile ecosystems and crisis after crisis for the most vulnerable people and societies”.

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