Technology Requirements for Monitoring Reporting and Verification of Ocean Carbon Dioxide Removal

This paper analyzes the need for new technologies to support monitoring reporting and verification (MRV) solutions for ocean carbon dioxide removal (oCDR). Current scientific, investment, and policy considerations suggest that to mitigate climate change it will be necessary to utilize the ocean as a resource in removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The latest IPCC report notes that limiting warming to 1.5C will require around 6 GtC02 of CDR per year by 2050. In 2021 the US National Academy of Science and Engineering released a report describing the underlying concepts of oCDR. While these techniques vary they share one common consideration. All oCDR approaches will depend upon effective MRV to validate that carbon is sequestered. This “trust” is fundamental to the future economy of oCDR founded upon scientific credibility and social license. While oCDR MRV will draw upon advances in modeling it will also depend upon in situ monitoring. In all likelihood, the number of in situ bio-geochemical measurements required to support global MRV will be two, or possibly four, orders of magnitude more than the most extensive ocean measurements conducted today. This paper summarizes oCDR concepts. It goes on to examine the current state-of-the art in solutions for oCDR MRV and reviews development in ocean observing platforms and emerging ocean carbon sensors. Combining these analyses, this paper evaluates trends in sensor and platform economics to anticipate a likely oCDR MRV system solution that will be commercially viable in the next five to ten years.