August 14, 2025 – As scientists look to the ocean to help curb rising global temperatures, international environmental law expert Wil Burns warned that laws have not kept up with new technologies and are posing problems during a recent University of Houston Law Center webinar.
Burns began his talk, titled “Regulation of Marine Carbon Dioxide Removal Under U.S. Law,” with a sobering projection: Global temperatures could rise by as much as 4.4 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, which could have catastrophic consequences for both ecosystems and human systems.
He then shifted to the promises of new solutions.
“The world’s oceans naturally remove about 10 gigatons of carbon dioxide annually, or about a third of all human-caused emissions,” said Burns, co-director of the Institute for Responsible Carbon Removal at American University. “[Researchers] have started looking at ways to elevate the [ocean’s] game.”
The MCDR methods, also known as negative emissions technologies, under consideration are ocean alkalinity enhancement, macroalgal cultivation and sinking, artificial downwelling, and ocean fertilization.
However, Burns said legal structures such as the Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act (MPRSA) and the Clean Water Act were not crafted with these new developments in mind.
“These acts weren’t designed for [these technologies],” Burns said. “I think agencies are now trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.”
Originally designed to regulate the dumping of harmful materials in the ocean, the MPRSA treats any placement of material in marine waters as “dumping” even when the intent is carbon removal, not waste disposal.
“Obviously, this is a statute that never contemplated that it could be salutary to put large amounts of a certain material into the ocean,” Burns said. “Thus, it may not be fit for purpose to adequately assess the judiciousness of this approach.”
He also discussed the limitations of the Clean Water Act, especially in the case of Ebb Carbon’s electrochemical ocean alkalinity project, which alters the normal pH levels in the ocean. By making the water less acidic, the seawater has an opportunity to pull more carbon dioxide out of the air.
“Under the Clean Water Act, pH is listed as a ‘conventional pollutant’ — that is something that we are going to have to look back at in the future because that term, ‘pollutant,’ remains contested,” Burns said. “Over the next two years, this should serve as an interesting case study to see what the [Environmental Protection Agency] learns from this process and how it may alter [it] in the future.”
Despite the legal friction, Burns noted that regulators are beginning to adapt, and the permitting landscape is slowly evolving.
“It’s early days,” he said. “A lot of these agencies never contemplated people trying to use these statutes in this context. [These are] just some of the legal issues that are abiding as we start to enter this brave new world.”
The event, hosted by the Law Center’s Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources Center was moderated by EENR Co-Director Tracy Hester and research scholar, Qaraman Hasan. This webinar is a part of the center’s continuing efforts to lead dialogue at the intersection of law, climate science, and innovation. For more information and upcoming events, visit https://www.law.uh.edu/eenrcenter/.
