A Rights-Based Approach to Governance of Climate Geoengineering

• Date: 01 September 2020

50 ELR 10744 ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REPORTER 9-2020

A RIGHTS-BASED APPROACH TO

GOVERNANCE OF CLIMATE

GEOENGINEERING

by Railla Veronica D. Puno

Railla Puno has a J.D. from the University of the Philippines and recently earned an LL.M. in Global Environmental Law

from Pace University. She previously worked for the Philippine government, the NGO sector, and has served as a

negotiator to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Faced with the growing threat of climate vulnerability, many have turned to the idea of geoengineering. How-

ever, many environmentalists and human rights advocates are wary of the risks related to geoengineering.

At present, there is no international agreement that governs the deployment of geoengineering technologies.

This Article explores a rights-based approach for the governance of geoengineering in international law,

including the impetus, rationale, and options for implementation. The approach would take into account the

need for participation, accountability, nondiscrimination, and equality in its development and deployment,

while addressing the potential of such technologies in mitigating the impacts that climate change would have

to the full enjoyment of human rights, including the right to a healthy environment.

SUMMARY

But we also need to acknowledg e that the geoengine er-

ing genie is already out of the bottle. e likelihood of

unilateral deployment of solar geoengineering incre ases

every year. e global c ommunity must decide whether to

engage now, by setting clear governance rules a nd guard-

rails, or al low individual actors to take the lead, creat ing a

fait accompli for the rest of us.

— Ban Ki-moon,

Secretary-General of the

United Nations, 2007-20161

Climate change is without question the greatest cha l-

lenge of our generation, and we have no choice but

to face this chal lenge head-on. e past ve years

have collectively been the warmest years in modern histo-

ry. 2 e impacts of climate change are already being felt

all over the world and have wide-ranging implications on

both the environment and on various socioeconomic sec-

tors.3 We have to take unprecedented and ambitious steps

if we are to have any hopes of slowing down these impacts.

1. Ban Ki-moon, Governing Geoengineering, P S, Mar. 11,

2019, https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/climate-change-geo

engineering-technologies-governance-by-ban-ki-moon-2019-03.

2. Alejandra Borunda, e Last Five Years Were the Hottest Ever Recorded,

N’ G, Feb. 6, 2019, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/

environment/2019/02/2018-fourth-warmest-year-ever-noaa-nasa-reports/.

3. U N F C  C C (UN-

FCCC), C C: I, V,  A

In 2015, the Paris Agreement was adopted with the

goal of holding “the increase in the global average tem-

perature to well below 2° [Celsius (C)] above pre-indus-

trial levels and pursuing eorts to limit the temperature

increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, recognizing

that this would signicantly reduce the risks and impacts

of climate change.”4 To this end, Parties are to undertake

and communicate ambitious eorts that show progression

over time through their nationally determined contribu-

tions.5 However, the Emissions Gap Report published by

the United Nations Environment Programme in Novem-

ber 2019 states that even if all t he current conditional and

unconditional nat ional c ontributions on green house gas

reductions are met, we are still headed toward a minimum

trajectory of a 3°C average temperature rise by the end of

the century and an emissions reduction gap of about 30

gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (GtCO2e) fr om

the 1.5°C pathway.6

In the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s

(IPCC’s) special report (SR1.5) on the impacts of global

warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and related

 D C (2007).

4. Paris Agreement to the UNFCCC, Dec. 12, 2015, art. 2, T.I.A.S. No. 16-

1104 [hereinafter Paris Agreement].

5. Id. art. 3.

6. U N E P, E G R

2019 E S (2019), https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/

handle/20.500.11822/30798/EGR19ESEN.pdf?sequence=13.

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