How to Fund Ocean Fertilization Research

Join the Institute for Responsible Carbon Removal for the next event in its webinar series, “Scrubbing the Skies: The Role of Carbon Dioxide Removal in Combating Climate Change.” The series focuses on scientific, technological, legal, political, and justice-focused issues associated with carbon dioxide removal, and is hosted by the Institute’s Co-Director Wil Burns.

Episode Overview

Ocean fertilization sits at an impasse: Despite showing potential to deliver gigatons of carbon removal at costs below $100/ton, the approach faces daunting questions about potential ecological and societal effects. The scientific, legal and institutional frameworks needed to earn legitimacy and public trust and to manage a major new use of the largest public resource on earth do not yet exist. Without this governance, neither philanthropy nor private capital can flow at the scale the science demands. The result is a field that is simultaneously urgent and stuck.

The mCDR Governance Framework Pilot Program for the Gulf of Alaska is a proposed attempt to break that impasse. This four-year regional pilot will be co-developed with the communities, fisheries managers, Indigenous nations, and regulators who have the most at stake in getting this right. As ocean co-managers, tribal governing authorities already know how to manage marine resources, but they haven’t yet built management systems for this novel use.

In this presentation we will attempt to disentangle the mess of ocean fertilization's potential and discuss the mCDR Governance Framework Pilot Program proposal for the Gulf of Alaska region. This includes a new funding mechanism that, if it works, could serve as a template to accelerate mCDR research globally.