New Study Explores Marine Carbon Removal Technologies

Meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement requires rapid and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, which is a critical priority, according to a new study.

The European Marine Board's new study Monitoring, Reporting and Verification for Marine Carbon Dioxide Removal highlights how marine CDR (mCDR) methods could support reducing atmospheric CO2 concentrations by leveraging the Ocean’s capacity to absorb CO2.

However, any implementation would require improved observations and understanding of all carbon flows affected by mCDR to ensure accurate accounting of net CO2 removal.

Moreover, if mCDR methods are to be scaled up to help reach climate targets, a robust, consistent Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) framework must be developed to ensure transparent, accurate and reproducible accounting of net CO2 removal and potential impacts of mCDR methods.

At present, all mCDR methods remain at early research or small pilot scale, with none yet demonstrated at large-scale deployment. Consequently, mCDR methods do not have sufficiently robust, comprehensive MRV in place to enable credible large-scale implementation.

…the study highlights.

Moreover, the MRV landscape remains fragmented, with jurisdictions at different stages of development and varying, overlapping protocols for different mCDR methods.

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Key MRV Challenges Include

• Accounting for greenhouse gases beyond CO2
  
• Defining baselines and additionality, where additionality refers to the CO2 removed by mCDR that would not have been removed from the atmosphere in the absence of mCDR
  
• Quantifying the duration of carbon storage
  
• Performing LCAs
  
• Evaluating environmental impacts
  
• Addressing the co-deployment of different mCDR methods
  

Credit: European Marine Board

Recommendations for Policymakers and Regulators

• Develop a standardised, comprehensive, regulatory framework for MRV, to overcome the fragmentation, inconsistencies and lack of global governance of existing MRV systems

• Standardise the collection and reporting of mCDR MRV information across diverse regulatory fora, rather than relying on non-binding standards from private initiatives

• Develop regulations for baseline monitoring that cover both carbon and ecology (water chemistry, biodiversity, habitat). Use these baselines to establish additionality for MRV and to detect/attribute ecological effects, with pre-defined indicators and adaptive triggers

• Develop cost-effective, standardised and sustained long-term monitoring and observing systems for carbonate system variables that verify durability and net CO2 removal of mCDR, and complement these with modelling and machine learning when high-frequency or long-term measurements are not feasible

• Limit scaling and co-deployment of mCDR methods until MRV protocols for individual methods have been proven and assess changes in efficacy and the practicalities of undertaking robust MRV in co-deployment scenarios

• Consider the requirements of key legislation, such as the Water Framework Directive, the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, the Nature Directives (Birds and Habitats Directives), the Nature Restoration Regulation, the Nitrates Directive and the Maritime Spatial Planning Directive, for the implementation and monitoring of mCDR methods in the European Union.

Recommendations for National, European and Philanthropic Science Funders

• Fund projects to establish baseline carbon fluxes and sinks, particularly those that support development of instruments allowing high-frequency, long-term, in situ carbonate system measurements

• Fund projects that produce observational data for the purpose of validating and refining models, particularly on deep-Ocean processes

• Fund projects to investigate how biological processes respond to environmental change as part of MRV assessments, to ensure changes are acceptable and do not compromise Ocean health

• Fund projects to close knowledge gaps on the long-term efficacy, environmental impacts and scalability of mCDR methods

• Require transparent data-sharing policies, as well as open-access publications and project outcomes in all funded projects related to MRV and mCDR

• Support practical applications of real-world MRV for mCDR, to complement the fundamental research behind mCDR methods

• Support multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary MRV research projects that map the regulatory landscape, while engaging stakeholders and local communities

Recommendations for MRV Scientists, Practitioners and Project Planners

• Establish robust local-, regional-, and large-scale baselines in terms of carbon fluxes and sinks to support quantification of additional carbon removal

• Quantify uncertainties in MRV protocols for CO2 removal across different scales

• Determine thresholds for unacceptable ecological and environmental side effects that would trigger policy or management response

• Quantify the durability of the CO2 removal, in addition to its magnitude, as part of MRV for mCDR methods

• Establish how interactions between various mCDR methods being co-deployed may be credited within MRV and carbon removal accounting frameworks

• Conduct rigorous Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) to quantify the net carbon removal effects through mCDR methods

• Develop standardised environmental MRV (eMRV) guidance and baselines

• Describe environmental and ecological risks in MRV assessments

• Follow ethical principles and codes of conduct for research and prioritise funding from transparent sources, such as the European Commission or national research councils