Abstract
Since Day One, President Biden and Vice President Harris have delivered on the most ambitious climate agenda in history, including significant investments in clean energy, climate resilience and adaptation, nature-based solutions, and environmental justice. They set a goal to cut our greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 and achieve a net-zero emissions economy by 2050 to avoid the most catastrophic impacts to people and the planet.
The ocean spans 70 percent of the globe, from shallow bays to the depths and areas beyond any nation’s jurisdiction. The White House recognizes that paving the path to a healthy and livable climate requires a healthy ocean, including the open ocean, coasts, estuaries, and the U.S. Arctic, Great Lakes, and territories. The ocean also has the potential to advance powerful climate solutions. That is why the Biden-Harris Administration released the first-ever Ocean Climate Action Plan (OCAP) in March 2023 as a whole-of-government roadmap to harness the power and capacity of the ocean to address the climate crisis.
The OCAP identifies marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) as an area that requires closer attention. mCDR refers to approaches that use ocean processes to increase the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide taken up by the ocean, adding to the large, natural ocean carbon sink. Even without deliberate mCDR, the ocean will continue to absorb anthropogenic carbon dioxide but at a slower rate than greenhouse gases are building up in the atmosphere. If mCDR approaches could safely increase the ocean’s uptake of carbon dioxide as a complement to deep emissions reductions, mCDR could become a valuable tool to help avoid the most devastating effects of climate change. However, more research is needed to determine if mCDR approaches are safe and effective.
Given the importance of the ocean, disruptions to its functioning have the potential to harm people and ecosystems and to undermine public trust. Additional information about both the benefits and risks of mCDR is needed, as are opportunities for public engagement in decision-making surrounding mCDR research. The OCAP established a target that, by 2030, the United States should develop sufficient knowledge about the different methods of mCDR to inform potential future decision-making. While valuable mCDR research is already being conducted across the federal government, academia, and the private sector, a comprehensive research strategy is needed to align disparate efforts across the government and the broader mCDR research community.
In addition to accelerating progress on mCDR research, the federal government should work to ensure that this research is carried out responsibly, ethically, and safely. Inclusive, effective, and meaningful participation and engagement is one of the foundational principles of government decision-making. Communities and diverse sectors of society should be engaged early and throughout the research process to increase their awareness and involvement in mCDR research. Recognizing the importance of building trust and understanding, the federal government should promote strong collaborations and connections across the many sectors interested in and affected by mCDR. This will build the capacity needed to help society decide whether to deploy mCDR as a climate solution in the future.
This National Marine Carbon Dioxide Removal Research Strategy (hereafter referred to as the Strategy) is intended to bring OCAP’s target into reach. It outlines how the U.S. government can support and fill critical knowledge gaps relating to mCDR while identifying its positive effects and mitigating its negative environmental, social, and human health impacts. Further, the Strategy demonstrates pathways by which the communities where mCDR research may occur and interested public, nonprofit, and for-profit sectors may engage with mCDR research. The Strategy advances the following objectives to guide U.S. government efforts:
1. Promote responsible mCDR research that involves communities and minimizes environmental risk.
2. Strengthen interdisciplinary areas of research to answer key questions about mCDR safety and efficacy.
3. Advance reliable and accurate measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) of mCDR and the sharing of research results.
4. Prioritize research toward mCDR approaches that show the greatest promise of achieving specific benchmarks for safety, efficacy, and other criteria.
5. Ensure mCDR research is efficiently and effectively permitted under applicable laws and regulations.
6. Promote coordination across diverse sectors and communities with interests in mCDR research.
The Strategy expands on these objectives by highlighting goals, principles, and recommendations that will responsibly produce sound science to guide future decision-making. The Strategy is guided by an overarching commitment to steward a healthy and sustainable ocean and planet. The Strategy prioritizes environmental justice and robust engagement with communities, Tribal Nations, and Indigenous Peoples, including Native Americans, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and Indigenous Peoples of the U.S. territories. The Strategy aims to integrate and coordinate actions across the federal government, including through the creation of an Interagency Working Group on mCDR (IWG-mCDR). It also outlines best practices for both publicly and privately funded mCDR research.