To meet the evolving needs of the marine carbon dioxide removal community, the National Academies Ocean Studies Board will establish a new standing committee on the topic.   

This new standing committee, set to launch in March 2025, will be charged with updating information from the 2022 National Academies report, A Research Strategy for Ocean Carbon Dioxide Removal and Sequestration. The 2022 report outlines six marine Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) strategies, which hold great potential for the uptake and sequestration of human-produced CO2.  

Kelly Oskvig, director of the future standing committee, emphasized the importance of regularly updating information about marine CDR. “There is new information on marine CDR to digest every single day,” Oskvig said. “We are thrilled to establish a new standing committee focused on providing updated and vetted information to the marine CDR community.”

The Carbon to Sea Initiative, a non-profit dedicated to evaluating how the ocean can play a role in the removal and storage of carbon dioxide, provided the initial grant to support the creation of the new standing committee.   Antonius Gagern, Executive Director at Carbon to Sea, detailed their decision to support the standing committee.

"Carbon to Sea is looking forward to working closely with the National Academies Ocean Studies Board to provide trustworthy information on the fast-developing field of ocean-based carbon dioxide removal (oCDR),” Gagern said. “We’re excited to see what new partnerships, community and policymaker engagements, and scientific advancements the standing committee will make possible."  

To learn more about this standing committee, click here.