Building a Collective Strategy to Advance mCDR RD&D for Climate-Relevant Solutions
The goal: Enable mCDR deployment decision-making by 2030 through increased synergy and alignment across sectors advancing mCDR RD&D
Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is crucial to meeting international climate agreements and ensuring a safe climate, with many of the CDR reports published to date emphasizing 2030 as a critical milestone for laying the foundational work for greenhouse gas removal (GHGR) deployment at climate-relevant scales. Together with partners, Ocean Visions is facilitating a process to develop a collective 2030 strategy to better coordinate action over the next five years and ensure that the mCDR field produces the evidence and data needed that will allow society to make sound decisions by 2030 about larger scale deployments.
Foundation Setting (December 2024 - May 2025)
The project identified two early objectives to lay the foundation of information necessary for building a collective strategy for advancing the mCDR field.
- Develop the foundations for the collective 2030 strategy for 1) determining priorities across the field, 2) answering fundamental questions about the efficacy and safety of mCDR approaches, and 3) establishing the enabling conditions required to field test mCDR approaches, a prerequisite for deploying any mCDR technology.
- Make recommendations for increasing connectivity, coordination, and collaboration across the field to establish and implement the collective 2030
In the past five years, there has been significant growth in awareness and engagement with CDR, particularly marine CDR (mCDR). As a result, more players from academia, start-ups, government, and other sectors are entering the mCDR field. These researchers and practitioners are advancing vital work in areas such as fundamental research, policy, financial mechanisms, governance, and technology development. However, actors and sectors are primarily operating in siloes with inconsistent coordination and collaboration across the field, limiting synergistic efforts and making it challenging to develop the field expediently or strategically to meet the urgency of the moment.
The initial work of this project seeks to better understand the breadth of both work and goals from the diverse actors in the field and lay the groundwork for a more synergistic effort to meet the urgency of getting to actionable information.
Process and Approach
Advisory Group:
- Representatives from a broad range of stakeholder groups will provide key input and strategic advice on organizations to engage, revision of knowledge products, process direction, and recommendations for alignment among the mCDR community.
Research
- Desktop Research: Review reports, articles, and other relevant materials to compile data on mCDR activities across sectors and pathways, identify objectives among the mCDR community, and identify the scientific and social gaps that need to be addressed to make responsible decisions about mCDR technologies deployment.
- Stakeholder Interviews: Conduct non-attributable interviews with key stakeholders – including researchers, scientists, investors, philanthropic donors, civil society representatives, decision-makers, and community members – that focus on deepening understanding of current mCDR activities, stakeholder objectives, and visions for mCDR, and where there are gaps or challenges in accomplishing mCDR goals.
Engagement and Inclusion
- Workshops: Convene in-person workshops during the Ocean Visions 2025 Biennial Summit to hold sessions with others not previously engaged in the process, to gather broad feedback and perspectives on the information collected and identify the next steps for advancing the field and enabling coordination and collaboration.
- Webinar: Provide a virtual forum for mCDR community members to provide feedback on the initial research findings and recommendations and identify opportunities for strategic collaboration.
The foundational information gathered and analyzed in this first phase will be compiled into a report that provides the mCDR RD&D community with the data needed to identify clear milestones and associated actions to fill gaps in the field.
Agenda Setting (June 2025)
The next phase of the project, beginning in June 2025 will focus on clarifying those milestones and the highest priority actions to achieve them, then identifying mechanisms for collaboration and partnerships to move the five-year strategy forward.
This is a project of Ocean Visions in collaboration with The Carbon Technology Research Foundation (CTRF) and other partners. CTRF is a non-profit, philanthropic entity with a mission to invest in the power of technology to supercharge natural systems and catalyze further funding, research, and solutions.
Contact
For more information, please contact
You can immediately contribute to the Collective Strategy Project by sharing relevant resources and your perspectives in the mCDR Collective Strategy Project Information Intake Form.