Iron Fertilization in the Ocean for Climate Mitigation: Legal, Economic, and Environmental Challenges

Author(s): Raphael Sagarin, Megan Dawson, David Karl, Anthony Michael, Brian Murray, Michael Orbach, Nicole St. Clair

Published: October 2007

download: working paper (.pdf) >

As public concern about global warming grows, and the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is clear, lawmakers, businesses, the public and investors are being presented with a number of new ideas for how to achieve those goals. Recently one such approach, "iron fertilization" of the oceans - the process of "seeding" some parts of the ocean with the essential micronutrient iron in order to grow more plankton and thus remove atmospheric carbon (in the form of CO2) and store it in the oceans has been in the public spotlight through news reports and well-publicized announcements of commercial ventures hoping to use iron fertilization to sequester carbon emissions. This process raises a number of questions, however, including its effectiveness as a market-based sequestration system and possible negative effects on the ocean and other environmental systems.

This paper is aimed to provide lawmakers, non-government organizations, the public and business interests with a brief overview of iron fertilization and its potential benefits and risks. We have consulted scientific and legal experts and reviewed literature from these fields in order to outline what is known and unknown about iron fertilization.