Marine geoengineering: IMO adopts assessment frameworks for marine geoengineering research

The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) adopted new guidelines on 9 October 2026 to make sure research into marine geoengineering does not cause unacceptable harm to the oceans, as interest grows in technologies that could help mitigate climate change.

Marine geoengineering covers methods designed to boost the ocean’s ability to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, or to store carbon over long periods. Scientists still do not fully apprehend how these approaches could potentially and eventually affect marine ecosystems.

At a meeting at IMO headquarters in London, the parties to the 1972 London Convention on the prevention of marine pollution by dumping of wastes and other matter, and to its 1996 London Protocol, adopted a resolution setting up assessment frameworks for three…