CNRS Research Director and Professor at École Polytechnique (IP Paris)
Key takeaways
The IPCC considers ocean capture of anthropogenic CO2 necessary in order to limit global warming to 2°C.
For the first time, a solution aimed at boosting this absorption will be tested: an artificial island will be placed on the lake of École Polytechnique (IP Paris).
This island will be equipped to extract CO2 from the water to increase its capacity to capture atmospheric CO2.
At the same time, the model will be capable of producing hydrogen to generate synthetic fuel from seawater.
With this carbon-neutral process, which is not yet mature, the researchers hope to be able to produce 1 litre of fuel per day from 4 m3 of seawater.
Senior Researcher in "Adaptation to Climate Change" at Institut du Développement Durable et des Relations Internationales (IDDRI-Sciences Po)
Jean-Pierre Gattuso
CNRS Research Director in Oceanography at Sorbonne Université and IDDRI-Sciences Po
Key takeaways
The ocean is a “climate regulator” for the planet. Over the last 50 years, it has absorbed 93% of the excess heat on earth, thus limiting the warming of the atmosphere.
However, this has been at the cost of significant consequences on its chemical and physical processes, including warming, acidification, deoxygenation, and rising sea levels.
The ocean offers different solutions to limit global warming, which researchers have categorised as Decisive, Low Regret, Unproven and Risky.
While the Decisive and Low Regret measures are clearly priorities for action, they will not be sufficient. Scientific research must continue to explore the field of Unproven solutions and to understand the application conditions of Risky solutions.
CNRS Research Director at the Laboratoire de Météorologue Dynamique of the Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace
T. Alan Hatton
Ralph Landau Professor of Chemical Engineering Practice at MIT
Key takeaways
The oceans could help reduce greenhouse gas emissions: CO2 is captured at the surface by natural physico-chemical processes.
But the increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration linked to human activities means that today the ocean only absorbs 25% of emissions.
Alkalising the water to raise its pH would improve the ocean's capacity to absorb carbon dioxide and counteract its acidification.
According to one model, it would be possible to double the capture potential of the Mediterranean after 30 years of alkalinisation.
However, scientists still have little experience of these processes, which have only been studied for a few decades, and the ocean itself is a poorly understood system.
