The Potential Role of Marine Carbon Dioxide Removal in Combating Climate Change

Dr. Wil Burns is the Co-Founding Director of the Institute for Responsible Carbon Removal at American University, a research center that focuses on social science aspects of carbon dioxide removal, including law and governance, ethics and justice and the role of public engagement and deliberation. Previously, he served as the Associate Director of the Environmental Policy & Culture program at Northwestern University and the Founding Director of the Energy Policy & Climate program at Johns Hopkins University. He also taught at the University of Chicago, Stanford University, and the University of California-Berkeley. Prior to entering academia, he served as Assistant Secretary of State for Policy for the state of Wisconsin and worked in the environmental non-profit sector for more than twenty years.  

His community service includes having served as Co-Chair of the International Environmental Law Section of the American Branch of the International Law Association, and President of the Association of Environmental Studies & Sciences (AESS). He was the 2019 recipient of AESS’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Scholarship and Service in the field. He received his Ph.D. in International Law from the University of Wales-Cardiff School of Law and is the author of more than 90 publications. 

In the ensuing years after the entry into force of the Paris Agreement, it has become increasingly apparent that achievement of its temperature objectives will require both aggressive emissions reduction initiatives and large-scale deployment of carbon dioxide removal/negative emissions technologies to either avoid passing critical climatic thresholds or address temperature “overshoot” scenarios. While much of the early research on carbon dioxide removal methods focused on terrestrial approaches, there has been increasing attention to the potential role of the world’s oceans, given both sustainability considerations and the fact that oceans already serve as a huge carbon sink, with much additional potential for storing carbon. These “marine carbon dioxide removal” (mCDR) options include ocean iron fertilization, ocean alkalinity enhancement, ocean upwelling/downwelling, and ocean biomass sinking.  

This presentation will focus on the potential risks and benefits posed by different ocean-based carbon dioxide removal options. It will also include a discussion of regulatory efforts to date by international treaty regimes, and other potentially pertinent regimes, including those with a marine regulatory focus, as well as the potential role of the UNFCCC/Paris Agreement.