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It’s clear from climate science that we need to drop greenhouse gas emissions in order to zero as quickly as possible. But it’s also clear from our slow progress that we could use some help with those emissions. One thing that can help is carbon dioxide removal, as it allows us to reach net-zero emissions even as some difficult-to-solve emissions remain.
Carbon removal on land—including obvious techniques like reforestation—gets a lot of attention. Carbon removal in the ocean, on the other hand, has seemed a bit pie-in-the-sky, even though the ocean already soaks up more CO 2 than land ecosystems do. A new National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report takes up the challenge of outlining what we would need to learn to make some theoretical techniques for boosting ocean uptake a reality—or to rule them out. The report follows 2015 and 2019 reports that set the state for carbon dioxide elimination science more broadly.
Boosting productivity
The report aims to provide some direction, both for scientists designing studies and for funders (like the particular National Science Foundation) setting priorities. It’s the work of the sizable group of scientists organized by the National Academies, with funding provided by a sponsorship from the ClimateWorks Foundation.
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