Some have proposed that climate-engineering methods could be developed to offset climate change. However, whilst some of these methods, in particular a form of solar-radiation management referred to as stratospheric aerosol injection (sai), could potentially reduce the overall degree of global warming as well as some associated risks, they are also likely to redistribute some environmental risks globally. Moreover, they could give rise to new risks, raising the issue of legal responsibility for transboundary harm caused. This article examines the question of international accountability of states for an increased risk of environmental harm arising from a large-scale climate intervention using sai, and the legal consequences that would follow. Examination of the applicability of customary rules on state responsibility to sai are useful for understanding the limitations of the existing accountability framework for climate engineering, particularly in the context of global environmental problems involving risk-risk trade-offs and large uncertainties.
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John Shepherd et al., Geoengineering the Climate: Science, Governance and Uncertainty (London: Royal Society, 2009), at 1.
Olivier Boucher et al., ‘Clouds and Aerosols’, in Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis: Contribution of Working Group i to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, edited by Thomas Stocker, et al. (Cambridge, uk: Cambridge University Press, 2013), at 571–657.
Martti Koskenniemi, ‘Doctrines of State Responsibility’, in The Law of International Responsibility, edited by James Crawford, Alain Pallet, and Simon Olleson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), at 47–51.
Thomas Stocker et al., ‘Technical Summary’, in Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, edited by Thomas Stocker et al. (Cambridge, uk: Cambridge University Press, 2013), at 98.
David Freestone, ‘Satya Nandan’s Contribution to the Development of the Precautionary Approach in International Law’, in Peaceful Order in the World’s Oceans: Essays in Honour of Satya N. Nandan, edited by Michael W. Lodge and Myron H. Nordquist (Leiden: Brill, 2014), at 311–12; ila, supra note 50, commentary to draft Article 7, para. 2.
Alexander Proelß, ‘Raum und Umwelt im Völkerrecht’, in Völkerrecht, 6th edition, edited by Wolfgang Graf Vitzthum and Alexander Proelß (Berlin: Walter De Gruyter, 2013), at 411.
Cf. Arie Trouwborst, Precautionary Rights and Duties of States (Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff, 2006), at 40; Markus Müller, Die internationale Zuständigkeit bei grenzüberschreitenden Umweltbeeinträchtigungen (Basel: Helbing and Lichtenhahn, 1994), at 13.
See Prue Taylor, An Ecological Approach to International Law: Responding to Challenges of Climate Change (London: Routledge, 1998), at 56–58.
Cf. Lucas Bergkamp, Liability and Environment, Private and Public Law Aspects of Civil Liability for Environmental Harm in an International Context (The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 2001), at 280.
Miriam Haritz, An Inconvenient Deliberation: The Precautionary Principle’s Contribution to the Uncertainties Surrounding Climate Change Liability (Alphen aan den Rijn: Wolters Kluwer, 2011), at 177.
N. L. Bindoff et al., ‘Detection and Attribution of Climate Change: From Global to Regional’, in Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis: Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, edited by Thomas Stocker et al. (Cambridge, uk: Cambridge University Press, 2013), at 872ff.
René Lefeber, ‘Climate Change and State Responsibility’, in International Law in the Era of Climate Change, edited by Rosemary Rayfuse and Shirley Scott (Cheltenham, uk: Edward Elgar, 2012), at 335.
Günther Handl, ‘Transboundary Impacts’, in The Oxford Handbook of International Environmental Law, edited by Daniel Bodansky et al. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), at 539; Beyerlin and Marauhn, supra note 46, at 40.
Oliver Corten, ‘The Obligation of Cessation’, in The Law of State Responsibility, edited by James Crawford, Allain Pellet, and Simon Olleson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), at 546 f.
James Crawford, ‘Overview of Part Three on the Articles of State Responsibility’, in The Law of State Responsibility, edited by James Crawford, Allain Pellet, and Simon Olleson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), at 935.
C. Hoss, ‘State Responsibility, Liability and Environmental Protection’, in Environmental Liability in International Law: Towards a Coherent Conception, edited by Rüdiger Wolfrum, Christine Langenfeld, Petra Minnerop (Heidelberg: Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, 2005), at 455.
Some have proposed that climate-engineering methods could be developed to offset climate change. However, whilst some of these methods, in particular a form of solar-radiation management referred to as stratospheric aerosol injection (sai), could potentially reduce the overall degree of global warming as well as some associated risks, they are also likely to redistribute some environmental risks globally. Moreover, they could give rise to new risks, raising the issue of legal responsibility for transboundary harm caused. This article examines the question of international accountability of states for an increased risk of environmental harm arising from a large-scale climate intervention using sai, and the legal consequences that would follow. Examination of the applicability of customary rules on state responsibility to sai are useful for understanding the limitations of the existing accountability framework for climate engineering, particularly in the context of global environmental problems involving risk-risk trade-offs and large uncertainties.