COBRA Webinar – July 2023

Perspectives on the Deep Ocean in Global Climate Negotiations and Ocean CDR Strategies

Dr. Sarah Seabrook (NIWA, New Zealand)

The ocean plays an outsized role in mitigating climate change and the deep ocean supports much of that mitigation. The ocean has captured 90% of the heat and ⅓ of the carbon associated with human emissions. However, the capacity for the ocean to provide these climate-regulating services is limited. Recent IPCC reports indicates that the deep ocean is warming, becoming more acidic, and losing oxygen – trends that are only expected to worsen under all future emission scenarios as projected by Earth System Models. These climate regulating services are underpinned by biodiversity and the effective management and improved valuation of deep-sea carbon regulatory services crosses legal and international boundaries. Therefore harmonization of international agreements and frameworks to create and center a unified resolve is critical. Here, I will discuss work along the ocean-climate-biodiversity nexus, highlighting recent events such as the Ocean and Climate Dialogue at the UN Climate Conference and identifying current areas of focus, such as the High Seas treaty and Ocean Carbon Dioxide Removal.