The Ocean's Role in Carbon Dioxide Removal and the Science Behind It

Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is crucial to meeting international climate agreements and ensuring a safe climate for existing and future generations. Marine CDR (mCDR) is a nascent portfolio of potential strategies that mimic and enhance the natural power of the ocean to cycle carbon out of the atmosphere and transform it into inert forms sequestered in the deep sea. If proven effective and safe, mCDR approaches could be deployed to help achieve the carbon dioxide removals the world needs to counterbalance hard-to-abate emissions and achieve net zero climate goals.

During the webinar, participants will receive a primer on mCDR and mCDR technologies by Ruth Driscoll-Lovejoy of Ocean Visions followed by a state of the science on mCDR and specifically on ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE) by Dr. Adam Subhas, the lead of the successfully completed LOC-NESS field trial through the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Subhas will demonstrate how the LOC-NESS project is contributing answers to critical questions about open ocean OAE and the viability of mCDR as an ocean-climate solution. Attendees will come away with an understanding of the science behind mCDR, and some resources for how to engage with this new industry. 

Ocean Visions is a science-based, nonprofit conservation organization working with and across diverse sectors and disciplines to identify, co-design, evaluate, and support the implementation of bold, ocean-based solutions to counter and reverse climate impacts to the ocean. Ruth Driscoll-Lovejoy is Ocean Visions' mCDR Program Director.

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is a nonprofit, educational organization dedicated to advancing knowledge of the Earth and its oceans. Adam Subhas is an Associate Scientist in the Department of Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry.