Panelists from academia, government, science, and business addressed the room about the state of marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) (Credit: Ryan Green)
As atmospheric carbon dioxide levels continue to climb, people are turning to the ocean for solutions. But the safety and efficacy of these projects remains an unanswered question.
Brad Ack, the CEO of Ocean Visions, an NGO focused on ocean regeneration, stood before a packed room at the New York City Bar Association on Sept. 23. “We have to rapidly decarbonize our atmosphere,” he said.
The carbon-curious had gathered in the Association’s historic Meeting Room, framed by gilded portraits and recessed lighting, to kick off Climate Week with a conversation about marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR). The event, hosted by Ocean Visions and The Columbia University Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, brought together panelists representing governments, academia, and business shared perspectives on the role of mCDR projects in the climate change fight.
The level of atmospheric carbon has jumped from around 11 billion tons in the 1960s to roughly 36.6 billion tons last year, according to a report published in 2023 from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The ocean holds 60 times as much carbon as any mechanism on land, so scientists and innovators are turning to the sea to accelerate progress on these technologies.
Many believe marine carbon dioxide removal, which is the direct capture of carbon dioxide from the ocean so that its natural cycles of carbon sequestration can continue, is the answer. This can look like the introduction of carbon-capturing minerals to coastal environments, growing and sometimes sinking biomass, like plankton or algae, and other processes such as electrolysis.
But this can be a risky business, often involving altering the ocean’s chemistry. And skeptics have hesitations about some of these methods and their unforeseen consequences.
“No one wants to do this,” said Gisela Winckler, a Columbia University Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory professor. However, she added, the “reservoir of carbon that the ocean is and can capture” is hard to ignore.
This hesitancy, combined with a deficit in long-term data on the still-nascent mCDR field, has resulted in a lack of funding for projects. However, in 2023, the Biden-Harris administration announced $14 million for projects that would research mCDR strategies.
Investment firms and federal and private sector grants represent other sources of funding, but all of the panelists expressed the need for more capital.
Ack spoke of the funding problem and highlighted that there has been over $5.5 trillion invested in fossil fuel franchises since the Paris Agreement in 2016, but online reports quote even higher numbers. Even land-based carbon removal vastly outcompetes mCDR for funding, he said. “It’s going to take billions, and we are putting in millions,” he said.
Danielle Farelli, White House assistant director for ocean science and technology, previewed a White House strategy document on marine carbon dioxide removal due for public release this fall. This report would include over 70 different ocean carbon “actions” and include three focus areas: the path to a carbon neutral future, nature-based solutions alongside technological ones, and community resilience.
“We know there is no path to a healthy, liveable climate without the ocean. We also know there is no path to a carbon neutral future without the ocean,” Farelli said.
Arun Vignesh, the assistant director of global partnerships for the Office of the Prime Minister of Singapore, explained the country’s stance.
“Singapore is a small, low-lying island state. Climate change is, for us, an existential challenge,” Vignesh said.
The country invested $20 million in Equatic, a mCDR company set to open a plant in Tuas. “So we’ve got skin in this game,” said Vignesh.
Equatic is part of a growing sector. Several companies working on mCDR solutions presented during the event. Planetary Technologies, for example, highlighted 188 tons of carbon removed last year. Another company, Brilliant Planet, is growing microalgae in the coastal African desert. Project Vesta has conducted a pilot that sequestered the equivalent annual carbon emissions of 1000 cars.
Though this level of carbon removal is small compared with the 36.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, these companies are just getting started, and they are working toward scale.
James Lindsay, director of investments for venture capital firm Builders Vision, cautioned companies coming to investors too early. “That’s like throwing good money into a pit of inferno,” Lindsey said. He encouraged extensive testing and in-water pilots to assuage hesitant investors.
In its Strategy for Carbon Removal Research, NOAA notes that the high cost of some mCDR projects, both financially and materially, can be a potential shortcoming, as well as other “unknown biological effects from methods that locally elevate pH above pre-industrial levels or that introduce large amounts of particulate material to the ocean.”
When asked about mCDR’s potential consequences, mCDR founder and oceanographer, Jessica Dabrowski said, “I think we have no choice but to intervene in order to repair the damage that has been done, and that not doing something would be worse than doing something like marine carbon removal.”
“It’s a big risk,” Lindsay said, one he seems to feel is worth it.
Ack agreed. “What’s that quote, build a plane as you fly it? We’re trying to build an airplane while trying to convince people it’s safe to fly in it.”
Looking ahead, the panelists emphasized the need for collaboration. The UN General Assembly’s recent Science Summit highlighted the importance of mCDR and emissions reductions in tandem, and agreed that the conversation must continue.
“All of the technology in combination is needed to move the needle, there won’t be one technique that advances in a silo,” Farelli said.
About the author(s)
Ryan is from Rhode Island and has spent her last few years in the marine science and conservation fields living in Spain, New Zealand, California, and now New York covering oceans and climate change.