What is Marine Carbon Dioxide Removal

The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) is excited to share a new resource on a technology that has the potential to help us in our fight against climate change. This technology is called Marine Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) Removal (mCDR). To understand mCDR, let's first discuss CDR as a broader concept. CDR is a suite of technologies that remove carbon dioxide, a chemical compound that has a warming effect when released into the atmosphere, from the ambient environment.

Since our natural carbon sinks like forests are overwhelmed, excess emissions have built up in the atmosphere and are warming the planet. CDR technologies help to remove these excess emissions and are one of the tools recommended by climate change experts to help mitigate the impacts of climate change. On land, this comes in strategies such as Direct Air Capture (DAC). DAC uses large fans that suck in ambient air. CO₂ in the air sticks to filters in the DAC machine, and the treated air, now with less CO₂, is filtered out. The CO₂ is then stored safely deep underground or turned into materials such as cement. You can learn more about DAC here!

Rendering of DAC Technology, Photo by Climeworks

While carbon sinks exist on land, the ocean is also a giant carbon sink, and thus has the potential to store large amounts of CO₂ permanently and prevent continued warming of the atmosphere. The ocean stores about a third of the total CO₂ emitted from burning fossil fuels and other human activities. This is a huge amount of carbon storage power, and mCDR seeks to leverage the ocean's sink capacity to store even more CO₂.

Our new fact sheet talks about the different technologies that are in the early stages of trials and development that can help to increase the amount of CO₂ stored in the ocean. The fact sheet also addresses cited risks, potential benefits, and the state of mCDR's deployment in the United States. The National Wildlife Federation recognizes that excess carbon in the ocean is having devastating effects, including changing the water's chemistry, causing it to become too acidic, and harming shellfish and other marine life. While mCDR technology and pathways are still in the early stages of research and development, NWF has been working to promote the research needed to understand the potential impacts of mCDR to the ocean and coastal communities, as well as investigating any possible co-benefits. The impacts of climate change threaten people and wildlife, but mCDR may be one pathway of many to help mitigate this threat.

Methods of mCDR, Graphic by Ocean Visions

Public link

Please use the above public link if you want to share this noodl on another website.