International legal framework for geoengineering: Managing the risks of an emerging technology

The present book “International Legal Framework for Geoengineering – Managing the Risks of an Emerging Technology” is about international law and an emerging technology called geoengineering, which refers to the large-scale manipulation of the planetary environment for counteracting anthropogenic global warming and its effects. Geoengineering provides new possibilities for humans to deal with dangerous climate change and its effects, on the one hand, and creates new risks to the planet, on the other hand. Scientific uncertainties contained in such novel techniques and their impacts bring challenges to environmentalists, politicians as well as lawyers.
In response to the challenges posed by geoengineering to international law, this book is aimed to identify and develop the rules and principles that control the risks arising from geoengineering activities to the environmental and human health without neglecting the contribution that geoengineering could make in preventing serious or irreversible climate change and its impacts. The author argues that, first, the employment of geoengineering should not cause significant environmental harm to the areas beyond the jurisdiction of the state of origin or the areas beyond the limits of national jurisdiction (the global commons), and the risk of causing such harm should be minimized or controlled. Second, the potential of geoengineering in contributing to preventing dangerous climate change should not be downplayed. This book examines the rules and principles that apply to geoengineering techniques under contemporary international law and proposes an international legal framework for governing geoengineering in the future.