María José Urrutia, Co-founder and Director, Cluster de Innovación Climática Oceánica – Chile (CINCO-Chile) and Ocean Visions Ocean-Climate Innovation Senior Fellow
For generations, Chile’s relationship with the ocean has been shaped by fishing, transportation, and coastal settlement. In the 21st century, and in the face of today’s climate and development challenges, we also need to recognize the ocean as a strategic source of opportunities for technological innovation, economic growth, and resilience. Global climate discussions are finally catching up to this reality.
At COP30 last year, ocean-climate solutions were featured prominently as essential components of the climate response in terms of adaptation, mitigation, and carbon removals. The ocean holds enormous potential to contribute to mitigation and adaptation. Work by the High-Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy suggests that ocean-climate solutions could provide up to 21% of the emissions reductions needed by 2050, and yet the ocean remains the most underfunded sector of the climate agenda.
Chile is well-positioned to contribute to this global challenge. With more than 5,000 kilometers of coastline, an established maritime industry, and a growing entrepreneurial ecosystem, the country has the conditions to develop a global hub for pursuing innovative ocean-climate solutions. And the most credible and durable solutions will need to be built from local knowledge and local conditions. That is the motivation behind CINCO-Chile, developed as part of the Ocean Visions Global Ecosystem for Ocean Solutions program. Our vision is to transform Chile’s coastline into a living laboratory where technologies can be tested responsibly, and governance can evolve alongside innovation.
A Shift Towards Implementation
To demonstrate what responsible ocean-climate innovation can look like in practice, CINCO-Chile is developing the first pilot-scale demonstration of Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement (OAE) in the Global South. OAE is a marine carbon dioxide removal approach that seeks to increase the ocean’s natural capacity to absorb atmospheric carbon by adding alkaline materials to seawater. Los Lagos offers a combination of ecological, industrial, and institutional conditions that make it well-suited for responsible OAE testing. The proposed pilot would repurpose shell waste as alkaline material from the region’s mussel aquaculture sector; Chile is the largest exporter of mussels globally. These processed shells would be introduced into the Puerto Montt wastewater treatment facility network, with treated effluent released through existing outfall infrastructure. This approach allows the pilot to build their operations from established regulatory pathways, environmental oversight mechanisms, and ongoing community engagement processes, all while demonstrating a model for embedding climate innovation in the region’s existing economic and industrial systems.
CINCO-Chile is collaborating with local academic institutions and strategic international partners like the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution to develop the fieldwork, water sampling, laboratory analysis, and coastal modeling required to monitor the results of the pilot demonstration. The pilot is designed to generate credible data on environmental safety, operational feasibility, and monitoring, reporting, and verification under real-world conditions. Another objective is to understand how OAE interacts with Patagonian marine ecosystems, including changes in water chemistry, biological responses, and effects on key species. This includes monitoring potential benefits, such as reduced ocean acidification stress, and unintended consequences that are not yet well understood at the lab and mesocosm scales.
At this stage, the goal is learning. The pilot is designed to build the evidence needed for informed decision-making. Critically, this model has been developed in close dialogue with local mussel farmers and municipal authorities in Los Lagos, whose knowledge of the territory and commitment to its stewardship are essential to the integrity and long-term viability of the pilot. Findings from the pilots could inform subsequent expansion along Chile’s coast through existing infrastructure. Beyond Chile, this pathway creates a basis for replication across Global South countries with existing or planned wastewater, desalination, and other relevant infrastructure. Opening the door to this kind of applied research would help clarify where OAE technologies are viable in the Southern Hemisphere and enable sustained scientific and technical collaboration across regions.
Science as Advocacy. Advocacy as Action.
A pilot like OAE Patagonia is not an isolated effort. It brings together local industry, municipalities, scientific institutions, and coastal communities to test how ocean-climate solutions could be advanced in the real world. Building ocean solutions requires an ecosystem of support, including enabling policy frameworks and financial instruments that reduce the risk of early-stage innovation.
Blue Week Los Lagos 2026 (May 11-14) has started to serve that function. Now in its second year, it convenes actors across science, policy, investment, and innovation to accelerate ocean solutions rooted in Chile’s institutional and economic contexts. The 2025 edition marked the launch of CINCO–Chile and brought together national and international participants working across the ocean innovation space. In 2026, the program expands to Santiago and Puerto Montt, with a focus on policy dialogue, investment opportunities, technology demonstrations, and site visits, including to the proposed OAE Patagonia pilot site.
This year’s guiding emphasis is science becomes advocacy, and advocacy becomes action. Attendees will have the opportunity to engage directly with the scientific team behind OAE Patagonia and explore what responsible scaling of ocean-climate solutions could look like across the Southern Hemisphere.
As part of the Ocean Visions Global Ecosystem for Ocean Solutions program, CINCO-Chile is well positioned to serve as a template for other Global South regions seeking to develop socially rooted and scientifically rigorous ocean-climate solutions. Pilots like OAE Patagonia can demonstrate how ocean innovation and economic development can be rooted in Global South leadership, governance, and long-term ecosystem stewardship. In Chile, we have the scientific capacity and natural infrastructure to become a global hub for ocean innovation. The next phase of Chile’s blue economy will be defined by how effectively we mobilize all sectors through a shared agenda of effective climate action and shared prosperity.
Blue Week Los Lagos will take place May 11-12 in Los Lagos and May 13-14 in Santiago, Chile. Join us to be part of the conversation shaping the next phase of ocean-climate innovation — from local pilots to global frameworks. Register now and help build the ecosystem that ocean solutions need. https://www.ketrawalab.com/blueweek