German government blocks ocean fertilisation project

The German government has called a temporary halt to a major research project intended to assess the effectiveness of ocean fertilisation projects designed to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it on the sea bed, amid fears the work could breach international regulations.

Earlier this month, a team of 50 scientists – including two from the University of Southampton's National Oceanography Centre – organised by the German-Indian Lohafex research project, set sail for the Southwest Atlantic in German polar research ship RV Polarstern.

Their intention was to fertilise the ocean with six tons of dissolved iron, which would lead to rapid growth of phytoplankton that would in turn soak up increased levels of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and sequester it on the ocean floor as the plankton dies. The team aimed to measure how much carbon was captured and safely stored, as well as assess the impact on the marine environment.

However, according to reports in The Telegraph the German government called a halt to the project amid concerns that it could breach the UN's Convention on Biological Diversity. Environmental groups have been campaigning against ocean fertilisation projects, arguing that they could have a negative impact on marine ecosystems.

Speaking to BusinessGreen.com, a spokeswoman for the University of Southampton's National Oceanography Centre confirmed that the German government had stopped the research pending a decision on its legal status.

"There is now going to be an environmental impact statement from the German government and work will not resume until that has been released," she said. " The whole point is to see how much gets taken out of the [atmospheric] system, but we only want to do it within the framework of the law."

In a statement issued soon after the RV Polarstern set sail, the Lohafex project insisted that its plan to create a 186 square mile bloom of plankton would not have an adverse impact on the marine ecosystem, nor breach international law.

"The scientific experiment is in accordance with the resolution of the London Convention on the regulation of ocean fertilisation from October 2008 and the Decision of the Convention on Biological Diversity on ocean fertilisation from May 2008 that call for further research to enhance understanding of ocean iron fertilisation," it said, adding that many research bodies had evaluated possible environmental impacts and found that the experiment "will not cause damage to the environment".

The statement said that "the level to which the surface-water iron concentrations will be enhanced during this experiment is an order of magnitude lower than natural iron levels in coastal marine waters", adding that "the size of the fertilised patch is considerably smaller than the impact of melting icebergs that may leave a swathe of several hundred kilometres' breadth of enhanced iron concentrations."

The pending decision on whether to allow the research to continue is likely to have a major impact on other ocean fertilisation projects that are in the pipeline, including plans from US startup Climos to undertake a research project that if successful could result in the commercial sale of carbon credits in a manner similar to tree-planting projects.