This survey has been written by members of the OA Med-Hub steering committee and endorsed by IMBeR on the Climate Intervention Challenge.
The implementation of the marine Carbon Dioxide Removal techniques (mCDR) requires the use of a comprehensive and interdisciplinary combination of different disciplines, as well as the identification of urgent knowledge gaps with the intent to provide clear recommendations/road map for future initiatives that might be applied in the Mediterranean basin.
Under mCDR, we can cite the following mitigation strategies: Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement (OAE), adaptation strategies such as Blue Carbon Ecosystem habitat and protection, restoration or recovery (ecosystem-based solutions), ocean nutrient fertilization, electrochemical engineering approaches, and artificial marine upwelling and downwelling. For a more detailed description, NASEM, 2022.
The interdisciplinarity of mCDR involves integrative, multipronged approaches tackling the following aspects: climate projections, biogeochemistry, biological risks assessment, socio-economics, policy and legal backgrounds framed into the governance framework.
The objective of this survey is to conduct a gap analysis to identify all the steps needed to consider potential implementation of mCDR efforts in the Mediterranean region.
Through this survey, we aim to 1) identify the gaps and steps needed for future implementation of mCDR; 2) identify key experts that conduct research and governance on the potential implementation of the mCDR in the Mediterranean region; and 3) explore the feasibility of forming a Working Group (WG) dedicated to studying OAE natural analogues within the Mediterranean Sea. Here, “natural analogues' refer to those earth system processes that could serve as study sites to understand how natural dynamics may interact if OAE is applied.
In this survey, we wish to make use of your professional expertise to evaluate some or all of the above-mentioned aspects in the Mediterranean region.
The survey will take around 15 minutes to be finalized.
