Document Type
Paper
Publication Date
12-2024
Abstract
Rapid and sustained reductions in human-driven methane emissions are critical to limiting warming in line with the 2015 Paris Agreement. Reductions in certain methane emissions, particularly from the fossil fuel sector, can be implemented cheaply and efficiently. Other forms of methane emissions, like those from agricultural sources, are more difficult to control. This fact, coupled with concerns that climate change could unlock significant additional natural emissions from tropical wetlands and melting permafrost, has increased interest in atmospheric methane removal (“AMR”).
AMR refers to human interventions to accelerate the conversion of methane in the atmosphere to a form that causes less warming. Scientists have proposed a range of potential AMR approaches, but all are in the early stages of development and require significantly more research to evaluate their efficacy and impacts. One proposed AMR approach is soil amendments, which refers to the addition of substances to soils to increase methane uptake by microbes in the soil.
This paper explores the international and domestic (U.S.) laws governing methane removal via soil amendments. The paper introduces the concepts of AMR and soil amendments, explains proposed applications of soil amendments, and discusses the climate and non-climate benefits and risks that soil amendments may present. The paper then discusses the international and U.S. legal frameworks that might affect whether, when, where, and how soil amendment projects are conducted.
Disciplines
Environmental Law | International Law | Law | Water Law
Recommended Citation
Korey Silverman-Roati & Romany M. Webb, Removing Methane via Soil Amendments: The Legal Framework, Sabin Center for Climate Change Law (2024).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/sabin_climate_change/238
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