Reduce
Advancing Ocean-Based Pathways to Decarbonization
Climate stability and ocean health are inseparable. Rising greenhouse gas emissions drive ocean warming, acidification, and deoxygenation- threatening ecosystems, economies, and communities worldwide.
Cutting greenhouse gas emissions is essential to protecting ocean systems and ensuring long term resilience.
The Ocean's Role
The ocean has a critical role to play in reducing greenhouse gas emissions across several sectors. Many of these potential ocean based pathways to decarbonization remain underdeveloped and underinvested.
Energy
Vast marine renewable resources, such as wave energy and offshore wind, offer the potential of reliable clean energy but require significant investment to further develop various related technologies and build pathways to scale meaningfully.
Food
Sustainable aquaculture and fisheries already provide lower carbon nutrition for people, but there is still significant growth potential in expanding adoption and including more cultivated and plant based ocean foods especially seaweed products.
Transportation
Decarbonizing international shipping, a major global source of CO2 emissions, is achievable through efficiency gains, development of alternative fuels, and new propulsion systems.
Agriculture
Ocean derived inputs, such as seaweed based livestock feed and plant stimulants, can potentially reduce emissions from land based agriculture.
The ocean can provide low-carbon energy, low-carbon food, and low-carbon transportation
Our Role
Ocean Visions works to increase knowledge of, and attention to, new and underinvested technologies, and to advance the enabling environments needed to bring viable approaches through development.
We accelerate the conditions for solutions to be developed and tested and, if effective, scaled responsibly. We act as a:
Catalyst
Identifying high potential, underinvested pathways
Integrator
Convening experts across science, industry, and policy to overcome hurdles
Enabler
Areas of Focus
Seaweed-Based Products for Decarbonization
Seaweeds offer significant potential to replace carbon intensive products across food, materials, and agriculture. Ocean Visions’ Seaweed-Based Products for Decarbonization Road Map is an open access, interactive, strategic blueprint designed to align interested parties around the scaling of seaweed based low-carbon products. Sections include:
- Agricultural Uses
- Biomaterials
- Blue Food and Animal Feed
- Fuels
- Critical Minerals
Ocean Visions is now working to mobilize philanthropic and public capital to support innovation and infrastructure for select priorities and to help address market challenges that prevent scale up.
Profiling Underexplored Ocean-Based Decarbonization Pathways
Beyond seaweed, there are multiple underexplored ocean based pathways that could contribute to a global transition to a low carbon society, including:
- Marine renewable energy technologies
- Low-carbon ocean foods and bioproducts
- Decarbonization of shipping and hard-to-abate sectors
New Resource: Dissolved Inorganic Carbon as Ocean Carbon Storage
Carbon capture and storage could help reduce emissions from hard-to-abate sectors, including maritime transport. Most storage efforts rely on underground geologic formations, but suitable geology is not available everywhere and transporting carbon dioxide to storage sites adds cost and complexity. A new Ocean Visions explainer examines dissolved inorganic carbon storage, an underutilized but durable ocean-based approach to storage that could complement geologic sequestration, particularly in coastal and ocean settings.The report explores how accelerated weathering of limestone can support carbon capture and durable ocean carbon storage. Download the Report (DOI:10.5281/zenodo.22677180)
Ocean Visions actively supports advancement of these pathways. We profile technology, policy, and market priorities and opportunities in a variety of international arenas and work to better integrate ocean based decarbonization into both national level climate strategies and international development and climate finance.
Dive Deeper
Remove
Advancing Ocean-Based Pathways for Cleaning Up Carbon Pollution
Reach
Building a Global Ocean-Climate Solutions Community
Repair
Prolonging the Health of Critical Marine Ecosystems and Averting Dangerous Climate Tipping Points