Talk summary:

The ocean plays a key role in regulating the climate by absorbing atmospheric CO2. In light of the growing awareness of limitations of terrestrial CO2 removal (tCDR), the ocean is becoming the new ‘blue’ frontier for carbon drawdown. To ensure that the ‘hope’ presented by marine CO2 removal (mCDR) does not promote unrealistic ‘hype’, there is a need for assessments that go beyond techno-economic feasibility. This talk; (1) gives an overview of one such holistic assessment being carried out within the German research mission CDRmare; (2) outlines an approach to assessment of mCDR’s political (in)feasibility, in which political framework conditions are treated as independent variables shaping the feasibility of mCDR becoming part of Germany’s carbon management strategy and; (3) invites discussion of results from the actor mapping being undertaken to explore the political (in)feasibility frontiers of mCDR in Germany.

Bio:

Dr. Miranda Böttcher is a Research Associate at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), and an affiliated member of the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University. Her research focuses on the knowledge politics of environmental assessment and governance. She is currently working on the German-government project CDRmare, developing a transdisciplinary assessment framework for marine carbon removal, with a focus on identifying political (in)feasibility frontiers. Additionally, Miranda is a member of the United Nations Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Environmental Protection (GESAMP) Working Group 41: Ocean Interventions for Climate Mitigation.

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