The Convention is guided by the polluter pays and precautionary principles. The implementation of the Convention is done through ‘Best Available Techniques’ and ‘Best Environmental Practices’ principles which OSPAR pioneered internationally. The latter set the latest state of the art processes, methods, control measures, and strategies as the norm for limiting discharges, emissions, and waste. The Convention has five main work areas: biological diversity and ecosystem monitoring and protection, limiting hazardous substances and eutrophication, governing human activity especially industrial practices and the offshore industry, as well as limiting radioactive substances.

In 2007, the OSPAR Commission adopted amendments and decisions permitting the storage of CO₂ streams in geological formations under the seabed but prohibiting it on the seabed and in the water column. Annexes II and III of the Convention were amended to detail the conditions under which the storage of CO₂ in geological formations is allowed. At present only two carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects in Sleipner and Snohvit, Norway are operational in the OSPAR maritime area.

The OSPAR Commission is the Convention’s governing body and Parties must report their progress and monitoring results to the Commission annually. The Convention is complemented by regular binding decisions and agreements, annual and periodic evaluations and assessments, as well as joint strategies agreed upon by signatory parties. The latest OSPAR multi-year strategy, the North-East Atlantic Environment Strategy 2030 (NEAES), was adopted in 2021. As the replacement for, and synthesis of, the Oslo and Paris Conventions, the OSPAR Convention applies all decisions, recommendations, and agreements adopted under these previous Conventions unless explicitly terminated.

Scope

The OSPAR Convention originally focused especially on oil pollution at sea from ship and aircraft (Oslo Convention) and from land-based sources (Paris Convention). In 1998, the Convention was amended to cover all human activities with adverse effects on the marine environment, although fisheries management and shipping are still mainly dealt through other institutions and international agreements. Climate change is an increasingly important cross-cutting issue for the OSPAR Convention which currently focuses mostly on ocean acidification.

Marine CDR is largely absent from consideration in the OSPAR Convention. Nevertheless, the expansion and potential establishment of a permanent working group on climate change as proposed in the Climate Change Thematic Assessment could lead to policy developments for novel marine CDR methods, especially as progress is made on that front within the London Protocol.

The geological storage of streams of CO₂, and conventional CDR through nature-based solutions are however key considerations in the OSPAR Convention.

Carbon Dioxide Storage

Following the 2007 Decisions and amendments to the OSPAR Convention, the OSPAR Guidelines for Risk Assessment and Management of Storage of CO₂ Streams in Geological Formations further elaborated the conditions under which CCS would be allowed in the OSPAR marine area.

The OSPAR Convention goes beyond the London Protocol in its implementation of geological storage of CO₂ by setting permanence as a key criterion for the storage of CO₂. This storage must not lead to significant adverse consequences for the marine environment or human health either. Stakeholder engagement throughout the project lifecycle is also an essential requirement for CO₂ storage projects to go forward. When these conditions are all met, competent authorities are able to grant permits and approvals to CO₂ storage projects. These permits should detail injections rates, planned amounts and sources of CO₂, and a risk management plan including remediation options and a site closure and post-closure monitoring plan. Competent authorities will require progress reports and monitoring reports to be made available to the OSPAR Commission.

The OSPAR Guidelines acknowledge that there is still uncertainty on the long-term CO₂ storage risks and encourages further research on leakage detection technologies, long-term ecological impacts, modelling exposure and effects, as well as monitoring deep-sea ecosystems. The need to improve and review the environmental monitoring of CO₂ storage projects has in fact been identified by the 2023 Quality Assessment Report. The NEAES 2030 also calls for the review of existing measures on geological CO₂ storage by 2027 and 2028.

Nature-based Solutions

The ecosystem-based management framework creates enabling conditions for conventional marine CDR, such as blue carbon, through the protection and restoration of coastal and marine habitats. The NEAES 2030 Strategic objective 12 is explicit on the issue; safeguarding the marine environment’s role as a natural carbon store is a priority for the OSPAR Commission. The strategy also calls for measures to implement a regional nature-based-solutions framework for carbon sequestration and storage. This framework has already been phased in for benthic ecosystems and is expected to be phased in for other habitats and species.