" (...) ENMOD – Some writers suggest that the 1976 Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques (ENMOD Convention) (45) limits geoengineering activities. (46) But although ENMOD’s definition of environmental modification techniques includes deliberate changes in the climate, (47) the Convention is limited to the use of environmental modification techniques for military or other hostile purposes, and explicitly states that it 'shall not hinder the use of environmental modification techniques for peaceful purposes'. (48) Consequently, it would not apply to most scenarios involving the use of geoengineering. (...)"
Notes:
(45) Adopted Dec. 10, 1976.
(46) See, e.g., Banerjee, Bidisha (2010). “ENMOD Squad: Could an Obscure Treaty Protect Developing Countries from Geoengineering Gone Wrong?” Slate (Sept. 23).
(47) An understanding to Article II’s definition of environmental modification techniques includes in its illustrative list of environmental modification techniques “changes in climate patterns.”
(48) ENMOD art. III(1) (
http://www.un-documents.net/enmod.htm )
Governing Climate Engineering: Scenarios for Analysis
Daniel Bodansky
Arizona State University
Discussion Paper for the Harvard Project on Climate Agreements
November 2011
Page 14f
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1963397Source:
https://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/...rning-climate-engineering-scenarios.htmlFoundation Professor of Law in the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law
https://isearch.asu.edu/profile/1527075"Article III
1. The provisions of this Convention shall not hinder the use of environmental modification techniques for peaceful purposes and shall be without prejudice to the generally recognized principles and applicable rules of international law concerning such use.
2. The States Parties to this Convention undertake to facilitate, and have the right to participate in, the fullest possible exchange of scientific and technological information on the use of environmental modification techniques for peaceful purposes. States Parties in a position to do so shall contribute, alone or together with other States or international organizations, to international economic and scientific co-operation in the preservation, improvement and peaceful utilization of the environment, with due consideration for the needs of the developing areas of the world."
http://www.un-documents.net/enmod.htmThe term "for peaceful purposes" is also used in the Treaty of Tlatelolco:
"Article 1
1. The Contracting Parties hereby undertake to use exclusively for peaceful purposes the nuclear material and facilities which are under their jurisdiction, and to prohibit and prevent in their respective territories:
a. The testing, use, manufacture, production or acquisition by any means whatsoever of any nuclear weapons, by the Parties themselves, directly or indirectly, on behalf of anyone else or in any other way, and
b. The receipt, storage, installation, deployment and any form of possession of any nuclear weapons, directly or indirectly, by the Parties themselves, by anyone on their behalf or in any other way.
2. The Contracting Parties also undertake to refrain from engaging in, encouraging or authorizing, directly or indirectly, or in any way participating in the testing, use, manufacture, production, possession or control of any nuclear weapon."
http://www.opanal.org/en/text-of-the-treaty-of-tlatelolco/http://www.opanal.org/texto-del-tratado-de-tlatelolco/That way you may use the internationally restricted technique at least in your home country although there are international obligations such as the human rights declaration which may also limit the application of restricted techniques. In fact, officially there was never an atomic explosion for peaceful purposes in the Americas until March 2018.
