The ocean covers seventy percent of the Earth’s surface and is governed by a combination of property rights, established in customary law, and cooperative agreements, established under treaty law. Drawing from history, international law, and game theory, Scott Barrett will explain what these institutions have and have not been able to achieve, and why.
He will then use this framework to determine whether radical proposals for change, from nationalizing the oceans to banning fishing on the high seas, would work any better. Meanwhile, as we try to improve these traditional forms of governance, the old order is being disrupted by climate change. Ocean chemistry is changing. Fish stocks are migrating. New shipping routes are opening. Ice sheets are being put at risk by ocean warming and changes in ocean currents. Use of the ocean to limit climate change poses yet more risks. Deep sea mining of minerals, manipulation of ocean chemistry, and direct injection of CO2 beneath ocean sediments could help to limit climate change—and, in the bargain, harm marine life. Can our existing institutions cope with these challenges?
Meet our speaker and chair
Scott Barrett is Lenfest Earth Institute Professor of Natural Resource Economics; Vice Dean for Academic Affairs, School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) and Earth Institute, Columbia University. He is the Centennial (Visiting) Professor, London School of Economics and Political Science. He is a leading scholar on transnational and global challenges, ranging from climate change to disease eradication.
Eugenie Dugoua is an Assistant Professor in Environmental Economics at the London School of Economics, in the Department of Geography and Environment. As an environmental economist, Eugenie works on topics at the intersection of environmental issues and innovation and technological change. Her research interests lie primarily in understanding how policies, and more broadly speaking, institutions can influence innovation and science to make economic development sustainable for the environment and societies. Eugenie graduated with a Ph.D. in Sustainable Development from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University in 2018.
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The Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment () is a world-leading centre for policy-relevant research and training on climate change and the environment.
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