A new report commissioned by the European Marine Board warns that currently, no marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) technology has enough proof of CO2 removal performance and environmental impact to be deemed safe for deployment.
The findings from the report were released during the COP30 event in Brazil, painting a reality in which none of the existing mCDR technologies has robust, long-term proof of effectiveness, while researchers lack profound understanding of potential ecological consequences.
Under the leadership of senior researcher Helene Muri from the Norwegian Institute for Air Research and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, the expert work group behind the report reviewed all existing data on mCDR, concluding that the field is not yet prepared for large-scale deployment.
According to the research team, deploying mCDR technologies at scale despite the lack of evidence and thorough evaluation could actually cause more harm than bring climate benefits.
One of the major challenges faced by the mCDR sector is the lack of reliable carbon removal measurement.
In this regard, researchers are yet to identify reliable ways to quantify how much CO2 can be removed via different mCDR methods, how long that removed CO2 stays stored, and whether it returns to the atmosphere at some point.
To date, many companies on the market are working on advancing mCDR technologies that leverage the ocean’s natural CO2-storing capacity to tackle atmospheric carbon dioxide emissions.
mCDR pathways are powered by biological, chemical, or physical solutions that are applied across a range of technologies such as seaweed farming, coastal ecosystem restoration, ocean alkalinity enhancement, engineered systems that draw CO2 from the surface ocean layers, and others.
Relevant: Ocean Visions Launches New mCDR Ecosystem Database To Streamline Sector Communication
While many mCDR industry stakeholders are working on building a comprehensive and transparent knowledge foundation within this field, there are also developers who are selling carbon removal credits from mCDR activities, which, according to the newly released report, might turn out to be misleading or damaging to the environment.
The report stresses that mCDR, like other CDR technologies, should be considered a complementary measure to emissions reductions, and to assess the potential environmental risks and actual removal impact, the mCDR sector needs strict and transparent rules for monitoring, reporting, and verification.
Read more: Carbon Direct And Microsoft Release New Criteria For High-Quality mCDR
