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If a start-up was ready tomorrow, could it launch Is there greater consensus about protecting
an initiative? and restoring blue carbon ecosystems?
Yes. There’s one called Running Tide, which has Experts at Monaco Ocean Week all agreed on the
received a permit from the Icelandic government to benefits and absence of risk associated with blue
run its operations there. carbon. Discussions with the audience showed that
local authorities are keen to take action and are
You oversaw the publication of the ‘Guide to searching for the best solution, particularly when
Best Practices in Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement it comes to restoring Posidonia meadows. Nature-
Research’.What are its main recommendations? based solutions raise the question of funding

The guide underlines the need for proper controls models, with many philanthropic organisations
4
and full transparency when conducting experiments now supporting the restoration of these marine
and publishing data, just as we do in the research ecosystems.
world. The problem is that companies are under
no obligation to do so. Private industry is less The problem is that blue carbon ecosystems, just
transparent. like forests, can disappear. A Posidonia meadow
can be destroyed, for example, or a mangrove
Are other ocean-based solutions to climate forest cut down to make way for shrimp farms,
mitigation emerging? releasing additional carbon into the atmosphere.
I wholeheartedly support restoring blue carbon So we must be cautious about delivering carbon
ecosystems, which is risk-free. We called them credits. In 2015 there was a mass dieback of
“no-regret measures” in an assessment published mangroves in Queensland, north-eastern Australia,
in 2018, meaning that even if they make a minimal when an El Niño event caused sea levels to drop for
contribution to climate mitigation, there’s no doubt several weeks, depriving the trees of water. Some
their many other benefits (such as protecting 40 million trees died. Imagine if that had been a
biodiversity and preventing coastal erosion) make restored mangrove. We would have sold carbon
them absolutely essential to carry out. credits when in reality carbon had been released
back into the atmosphere.
As for technological processes like alkalinity
enhancement and ocean fertilisation to stimulate 4. A Oschlies, A Stevenson, L T Bach, K Fennel, R E M Rickaby,
photosynthesis, I don’t endorse any. I endorse T Satterfield, R Webb and J-P Gattuso (eds), ‘Guide to Best
Practices in Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement Research’, Copernicus
research. That’s why we published a guide to best Publications, State of the Planet, 2023.
practices last year, to promote best practices in
research, not implementation.

Reducing carbon emissions is incredibly hard. Many
people are trying to find technological solutions.
Some companies are banking heavily on carbon
capture and storage so they can continue using
fossil fuels. But even if ocean-based solutions exist,
are found to be effective and have no major impacts,
we will still need to reduce carbon emissions. We
currently emit 40 billion tonnes of CO each year.
2
At best, and this echoes IPCC recommendations,
technological solutions will be able to store between
1 and 10 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide annually
from 2050.

Mesocosms used by GEOMAR researchers to study the effects of alkalinisation on plankton.
© Michael Sswat, GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel