The ocean is a significant natural ally in the global effort to scale carbon dioxide removal (CDR). Covering over 70 percent of the Earth’s surface, the ocean offers the largest natural reservoir for carbon storage, absorbing over 25 percent of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions annually. This natural ability to draw down and store carbon dioxide makes the ocean a potentially massive contributor to global climate mitigation.
YCNCC’s Marine Carbon Dioxide Removal (mCDR) Initiative is studying a range approaches including direct removal of carbon dioxide from seawater and ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE). Both of these processes enable the ocean to pull additional carbon dioxide from the air and store it as bicarbonate ions – a natural form of carbon storage that is stable for around 10,000 years. YCNCC scientists are actively exploring these strategies’ potential to deliver gigaton-scale durable CDR by midcentury, as well as their ecological impacts and co-benefits.
