Offshore, Off-Limits

The document outlines a legal framework for challenging offshore oil and gas expansion, focusing on rights to information and participation, duties to prevent environmental and human rights harm, and the responsibility of polluters to pay for decommissioning and remediation.

• Domestic laws serve as the primary defense against offshore oil and gas risks, with some jurisdictions like Costa Rica, New South Wales (Australia), and the eastern Gulf of Mexico implementing temporary or permanent bans on exploration and production.
• International law mandates that States conduct Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) for activities likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects or transboundary harm, including offshore oil and gas projects.
• Modern interpretations of EIAs, including a 2024 ITLOS Advisory Opinion, require the assessment of cumulative impacts and anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, including those from the downstream consumption of produced fossil fuels.
• Indigenous Peoples possess the right to free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) regarding decisions affecting their lands and resources, requiring that information be provided in culturally appropriate formats and local languages.
• Recent court cases in Norway and the UK have invalidated or challenged oil and gas approvals because the assessments failed to consider the climate impacts of the inevitable downstream use of the extracted fuels.
• Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), States are obligated to protect the marine environment, which includes preventing pollution from GHG emissions, as they introduce substances and heat that cause ocean warming and acidification.
• The transboundary harm principle limits a State's sovereign right to exploit undersea resources, prohibiting activities that knowingly cause damage to the environment of other States or the global commons, including the atmosphere and high seas.
• Significant regulatory gaps exist in international frameworks like the MARPOL Convention and the London Protocol, which explicitly exclude harmful substances arising directly from the exploration and exploitation of seabed mineral resources.
• The 'polluter pays' principle and the right to remedy require that oil and gas operators, rather than taxpayers, bear the full costs of decommissioning infrastructure and remediating environmental damage.

APA

Khatri, U., Steer, A., & Reisch, N. (2025). Offshore, Off-Limits. Center for International Environmental Law. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Offshore-Off-Limits-Law-and-Governance.pdf

Chicago

Khatri, Upasana, Aidan Steer, and Nikki Reisch. Offshore, Off-Limits. Center for International Environmental Law, 2025. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Offshore-Off-Limits-Law-and-Governance.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Khatri |first1=Upasana |last2=Steer |first2=Aidan |last3=Reisch |first3=Nikki |title=Offshore, Off-Limits |publisher=Center for International Environmental Law |date=2025 |url=https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Offshore-Off-Limits-Law-and-Governance.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{khatri2025offshore, author = {Khatri, Upasana and Steer, Aidan and Reisch, Nikki}, title = {{Offshore, Off-Limits}}, institution = {Center for International Environmental Law}, year = {2025}, url = {https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Offshore-Off-Limits-Law-and-Governance.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }