LIMA, Peru, October 27, 2025 — The Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) is participating in the 63rd Session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) — the UN body responsible for climate science — in Lima from October 27-30, with CIEL experts available for comment.
The IPCC meeting in Lima resumed negotiations on the contested question of the schedule for publication of the 7th Assessment Cycle reports and on the outline of the Methodology Report on Carbon Dioxide Removals and Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage.
At IPCC-62, consensus could not be reached on the inclusion of certain marine carbon dioxide removal (CDR), otherwise known as marine geoengineering, approaches in the planned Methodology Report. Marine CDR deployment is subject to the longstanding de facto moratorium on geoengineering under the Convention on Biological Diversity, reaffirmed only last year at COP16 in Colombia.
The London Convention / London Protocol is considering restricting additional marine geoengineering techniques, including ocean alkalinity enhancement, proposed for inclusion in the Methodology Report, and has stated that “activities other than legitimate scientific research should be deferred.”
Marine CDR would have to be deployed at an enormous scale for a meaningful climate impact and brings a range of new risks to oceans already severely stressed by overexploitation, pollution, and climate change. Inclusion in the IPCC Methodology Report would risk lending undue credibility and legitimacy to these highly speculative techniques.
A CIEL report published earlier this month charts potential locations for high-risk marine geoengineering experiments, illustrating the alarming scale of proposed interventions. The report, ‘A Gathering Storm: How Marine Geoengineering Threatens All Ocean Basins,’ shows that proposals for open-ocean experiments are growing despite significant scientific, legal, and ethical barriers.
CIEL Expert in Lima:
Mary Church — CIEL Geoengineering Campaign Manager: A leading expert on speculative fossil fuel “escape hatches,” including solar and marine geoengineering, and the risks they pose to addressing climate change effectively. Mary will be in Lima from October 27 to 30. Follow Mary on Bluesky, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
Media Contact
Niccolò Sarno, CIEL Global Media Relations: [email protected]