Environmental analysts have drawn the world’s attention to a new dimension in environmental science. Alison Kentish has urged the world to seriously discuss and try to fully understand the various dimensions related to carbon capture and storage which plays a significant role in coastal ecosystems like mangroves and seagrasses. It has also been urged that if the world wants to meet its looming climate targets, then they should focus also the high seas — the home of deep blue carbon.
It has also been pointed out that almost half of the world’s population lives in coastal zones. Among islands in the Pacific and Caribbean, Dominica, has up to 90 percent of its population living on the coast. Consequently, the ocean has become a fundamental factor in their lives and livelihoods. From fisheries to tourism and shipping, this essential body which covers over 70 percent of the planet, has transformed itself into a lifeline.
In this context A. Kentish has observed that the ocean’s life-saving potential is quite diversified. In this regard it needs to be remembered that the ocean regulates our climate and plays an important role in the sphere of mitigation within the paradigm of climate change. Unfortunately, it appears that major international agreements have failed to adequately recognize the resource that produces not only half of the earth’s oxygen but also possesses the power to absorb nearly 90 per cent of the excess heat that emerges from greenhouse gas emissions.
It is true that the ability of the ocean to capture and store carbon has come to the notice of climatologists as the world tries to restrain global warming below 1.5 C. It is now understood that coastal ecosystems like seagrass, mangroves and salt marshes play an important role in this regard. This is known as coastal blue carbon.
It is this dimension that has led environmentalists to observe that protecting and conserving coastal blue carbon ecosystems is very important because of the many co-benefits they provide with regard to biodiversity, water quality, and coastal erosion. They, according to Kentish, also help to “store substantial amounts of legacy carbon in the sediments below”.
This new attention by researchers welcoming the exposure of ocean solutions to climate change has also resulted in attention to the need to create– along with data, investment, and public education – more introspection with regard to coastal blue carbon. It has also emerged that scientists at Dalhousie University have been driving collaboration, funding, and state-of-the-art research into the earth’s largest carbon sink – located in the high seas. This has led Mike Smit, a professor in the Faculty of Management and the Deputy Scientific Director of the university’s Ocean Frontier Institute (OFI) to observe that “it is easy to imagine the ocean as what we can see standing on the edge of the shore as we look out, or to think about fisheries or seaweed that washes up on the beach – our economic and recreation spaces.” However, he has also pointed out that “beyond that, what you might call the deep ocean, is less studied. It’s harder to get to, it’s not obviously within any national jurisdiction, and it’s expensive. The Institute is really interested in this part of the ocean. How carbon gets from the surface, and from coastal regions, to deep, long-term storage is an essential process that we need to better understand. We know that this deep storage is over 90 percent of the total carbon stored in the ocean, so the deep ocean is critical to the work that the ocean is doing to protect us from a rapidly changing climate.”
OFI’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr Anya Waite, has in this regard also underlined that “the phrase ‘deep blue carbon’ needs to be a household one – and soon. She has reiterated that the omission of earth’s largest repository of carbon from climate solutions has resulted in the issue becoming “really urgent and if the ocean starts to release the carbon that it’s stored for millennia, it will swamp anything we do on land. It’s absolutely critical that we get to this as soon as possible because, in a way, it’s been left behind.”
Waite has also stressed that “the ocean needs to be in much better focus overall. We are used to thinking of the ocean as a victim of sorts. There is ocean acidification, biodiversity loss, and pollution, but in fact, the ocean is the main climate actor. It’s time to change that narrative, to understand that the ocean is doing critically important work for us, and we need to understand that work better in order to maintain the function that the ocean provides.”
Till recently, various meetings have been laying emphasis on coastal blue carbon – mangroves, seagrass, and salt marshes- but now the OFI intends to ensure deep blue carbon becomes part of our climate change conversation.
Environmentalists have welcomed the pro-active role of the OFI in its ocean and marine ecosystems research. They believe that this will enable them to find strategic, safe, and sustainable means of slowing climate change. This has gained more attention because according to the latest Synthesis Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) time is not on the world’s side to achieve the “deep, rapid and sustained greenhouse gas emissions reductions.” needed to limit warming to 1.5C. Smit has also observed that “we know that the ocean is changing, and how it absorbs carbon might change. There are just too many open questions, too high uncertainty, and too little understanding of what will enhance natural ocean processes and what will impair their abilities to continue to work.”
According to Waite, the ocean’s storage capacity makes it a better place to remove carbon from the atmosphere than land options. In fact, it pulls out more CO2 from the atmosphere than all the earth’s rainforests combined. She concedes, however, that the ocean is more complex physically, making carbon capture and ensuring the durability of sinks more difficult. In this context the observation has also been made by Waite that “We really need to understand the full scope of the ocean’s carbon-absorbing function and bring that into conversation with policymakers, nations, the finance community, and insurance. There are all sorts of impacts when the heat and carbon budget of the ocean are not well observed. Then we don’t have a good prediction system for cyclones, heat waves, and other important phenomena that insurance companies, governments, and the military all need to understand to keep us safe. There are really strong societal reasons for us to do this work.”
Many have wondered about how OFI’s innovation efforts and research will be able to help industry and industrial growth. They have been carefully monitoring the commercial prospects of the use of deep blue carbon and also how technology will be modified among companies who are currently associated with climate mitigation efforts.
Eric Siegel is the Institute’s Chief Innovation Officer with a background in oceanography, has spent the last 20 years at the interface of ocean science, technical innovation, and global business. An expert on several dimensions he has observed that they are not only trying to work more with industry to bring success through some of the innovations that are being developed but also trying to bring some of those companies into the research realm to help support the initiative. In this context he has underlined that “carbon removal companies will need to monetize carbon credits as they will have to sequester the carbon. That takes innovation and investment. It’s a great example of companies that do well and generates revenue by doing good, which is mitigating climate. It’s also sort of a reverse of how, over the last couple of decades, companies have donated charitably because they have generally been successful in extractive technologies or non-environmentally friendly technologies. It’s a nice change from the old model.” However he has accepted that presently there just are not enough blue carbon credits that can be monetized. He believes that “there is a huge marketplace, but because the technology is so new and there are some policy, monitoring, reporting, and verification limits in place, there are not enough of them.” On the other hand it is also true that some companies have started buying advanced market credits – investing now in the few blue carbon credit projects available globally for returns in the next five to 20 years.
One thing is very clear. Currently the pressing need for solutions to the climate crisis means that work has to be carried out simultaneously at every link in the deep blue carbon chain and that too in a coordinated manner. This in turn will encourage investment and will also create global confidence pertaining to parallel research and financial investment.
This has led technical strategists including Waite to reiterate that existing technical systems pertaining to the ocean are still fragile because vulnerable nations have to address diverse situations. They are also facing financial deficits in tackling the ocean dynamics in a sustained manner. It is this scenario that will also require critical data sharing and collaboration.
It is generally agreed by environmentalists that residents of the Pacific Islands are intrinsically linked to the ocean by proximity, tradition, or industry. This scenario underlines that their commonality in this regard will facilitate the movement forward pertaining to deep blue carbon. Pacific island nations are uniquely vulnerable to climate change. Their economic zone, extending up from their land, is also a critical resource that they can use to absorb carbon to maintain their biodiversity.
Consequently, Pacific island nations will have to play a special role in this regard and other big continental nations will have to help them in this regard.
Deep blue carbon might not still be a household term but the world needs to find the least common denominators through required research and partnerships. This format will then ensure that the prospect related to this issue will be part of the required conversation among international financial institutions as well as the various platforms generated through the efforts of the United Nations and the COP.
Muhammad Zamir, a former Ambassador, is an analyst specialized in foreign affairs, right to information and good governance
