This administration’s White House has done some pretty cool stuff on climate, including a bold long term climate strategy and the biggest climate investment in history.
Last month, the Office of Science and Technology Policy invited input to shape the U.S. Ocean Climate Action Plan (OCAP) to guide actions of the Federal government on all things Great Lake and salty water. This humble writer led a response on behalf of OpenAir, a global collective dedicated to promoting carbon dioxide removal where I am an advocate and occasional video series co-host.
The response called for recommended critical actions, knowledge & science gaps, environmental justice opportunities, and partnerships & collaborations.
Below I highlight what we recommended as near term actions, but the very interested can read the full response here.
Thank you to the OpenAir collective members that contributed to the development of this report, including Toby Bryce, Peter Chargin and Drew Felker.
Here is a pic of me submitting our input from my laboratory:
Near term (1-3 years)
In the near term, the OCAP should raise ambitions for what is possible across the board, expand its metrics for success (carbon and beyond) and lay the groundwork for technical innovation for the next decade.
Raise ambitions
Failing to act on climate is an economic, public health and domestic security risk to the United States. While the Inflation Reduction Act is an enormous breakthrough and the strongest move by a major GHG emitter this year, it will still bring us only to 80% of our current pledge towards emission reduction.
With growing bipartisan interest and broad public support for stronger climate action and carbon removal; it is a great time to raise ambitions for what we hope to achieve in Ocean Climate Impact.
Expand metrics of success
Carbon Removal: Articulate the role that carbon removal will play in the US action plan towards 1.5° C and define key targets for ocean-based CDR (oCDR), a collection of CDR methods with nearly unlimited capacity for long-duration carbon storage. These methods include ocean alkalinity enhancement, enhanced weathering, electrochemical direct ocean capture, macro and microalgae CDR and deep ocean basalt mineralization for long term storage of carbon.
Valuation of Blue Natural Capital: The services provided by our diverse ecosystems have been systematically undervalued, especially in the ocean, where fish and minerals are treated as “endowments waiting to be harvested” and account little for “the opportunity cost of using them today when they may be more valuable in the future,” according to Eli P Fenichel, a member of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Importantly, we need a set of metrics designed not around the ocean economy, but on ocean health, resilience and recovery.
Water Health: Ocean protection begins on land. OCAP should provide ambitious targets against excess nutrient run-off that contaminates waterways and oceans even in small quantities. Nutrient pollution is not being voluntarily addressed by corporations, creating opportunity for regulatory incentives, guidance and support for infrastructure upgrades.
Marine Life & Biodiversity: OCAP should establish ocean biodiversity baselines, tracking, goal-setting and transparent public reporting of actions and outcomes, including target populations of endangered and keystone species over the next 5, 10 and 20 years. Ocean alkalinity enhancement can help reduce local acidity levels that support marine food webs, and it can aid in atmospheric carbon dioxide removal to help address climate change.
Blue and coastal workforce: A successful OCAP will build out a green and blue labor force with the skills and capacity to rewire the systems of our society for a regenerative future. As such, key metrics for success should include equitable access to lucrative careers, job training and just benefit sharing to the communities protecting and regenerating our ecosystems.
Technical Groundwork
Policy, Governance & Permissions: Establish clear policy guidelines and governance framework to shepherd ocean climate action from theory into practice, create a path for public procurement and investment in climate-positive products and ocean based carbon removal, establish incentives between climate-aligned industries (e.g. alkaline rock mining and ocean alkalinity enhancement) and others.
Emissions Avoidance: R&D funding and pilot permitting for a diverse set of ocean energy pathways (including innovations in offshore wind, wave and tidal energy), ocean-based materials (including seaweed, green cement, etc.)
Funding for research and demonstration projects to improve the efficacy, safety, monitoring and public understanding of oCDR.
Streamlined permitting Establish clear pathways for permitting (e.g. EPA Ocean Dumping Research Permit) to accelerate funding for scientific experiments, specifically:
Cross-agency collaboration to accelerate project approvals.
Accelerate and expand permitting (and allow sub-permitting) for oCDR pilots in situ testing of ocean-based methods for capturing and storing CO2, including a map of potential, prioritized and (then, subsequently) permitted areas for testing.
Create pre-permitted experimental zones.
Authorize existing regulatory bodies with responsibility for any given area to grant flexibility for initial tests.
Consider BOEM to lease some GOM blocks for biomass sinking
Require government agencies to view oCRD projects through the lens of probable future ocean degradation without large scale CDR.
Empower, fund or mobilize a rigorous scientific body to develop international consensus on oCDR MRV and apply principles to emerging projects & pilots.
Co-location of oCDR with existing infrastructure:
Offshore Wind: The anticipated 30 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030 creates a massive opportunity to leverage curtailment and off-peak electricity to power oCDR and other carbon removal projects co-located with OSW infrastructure.
Decommissioned Oil & Gas: Programs for the safe decommission of offshore oil and gas infrastructure and upgrading for renewable energy, aquaculture or direct ocean capture purposes.
Wastewater treatment, desalination, and other ocean outfalls: Wastewater infrastructure has a high potential synergy with ocean alkalinity enhancement, as do coastal power cooling systems, fisheries outfalls, and similar. Desalination plants produce brine, a key input to certain oCDR methods.
Coastal City Wastewater Infrastructure: Global cities will absorb a projected 2 billion additional citizens by 2050, creating enormous pressure on city infrastructure. The US OCAP can avoid costly infrastructure breakdowns by investing early in R&D programs that improve technology and system design of wastewater treatment plants, pumping systems and nutrient treatment. Integrating ocean alkalinity enhancement features into water treatment plants can lower overall costs and enhance the local ocean ecosystem.
Restoration Tech: Fund a broad and bold R&D agenda to dramatically expand efforts towards lower cost, higher efficacy and AI-enabled monitoring of ecosystem restoration efforts along our coasts. Nature-based solutions and restored, well-monitored ecosystems have the potential to remove 7 Gt of the 23Gt Co2 annually that we need to track towards 1.5° C.
If you can’t get enough, read on here.
If you’re inspired to provide your own response, you can do so before midnight on Nov 18th. Let me know what you think on LinkedIn , Twitter (??🤷🏻♀️??) or email.
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