Every year, the oceans absorb around 30% of humanity’s carbon dioxide emissions and 90% of excess heat.
But it’s not enough to keep us on track to hit climate goals.
Experts warn that, to meet the Paris Agreement targets, we must remove 6-10 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere every year by 2050. Current methods, however, just aren’t enough.
This urgent gap is driving a wave of innovation in marine carbon dioxide removal (CDR), with EU-funded projects like SEAO2-CDR at the cutting edge. The project brings together scientific, economic, legal, political, social and ethical researchers to understand, evaluate and assessing pathways for implementing marine carbon dioxide removal (MCDR) techniques.
To find out more, we talked to Project Coordinator Dr. Willem van Dorp, Scientific and Technical Lead Dr Chris Pearce and Project Manager Nicolas Ruitenbeek.
They shared:
- The differences between biological and chemical approaches, and why some are closer to real-world deployment than others.
- Why academic-industry partnerships, smart policy and new funding models are crucial for scaling up marine CDR.
- The complex legal, governance, and policy challenges facing this emerging field.
- Real stories from the front lines: what happens when community engagement is strong, and what happens when it fails.
Learn how we can harness the power of the oceans.
Watch the interview
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