Opportunities: Renewable Oceans and Sustainable Maritime Industry Initiatives
The session will introduce the need, importance, and technical and policy challenges associated with monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) for marine-based carbon dioxide removal (mCDR).
All pathways to meeting the Paris Agreement targets require substantial amounts of CDR. The ocean is the largest carbon sink on the planet and holds the potential to supply a substantial fraction of the required sequestration, but the required technologies are immature. Additionally, MRV is technically challenging, yet essential to prove the required technologies and support effective data-based policy and governance.
Including what the maritime sector is doing to address ocean sustainability, e.g., low sulfur oil, alternative fuels, extensive electrification, energy-saving methods and devices, treatment of Greenhouse gases (GHGs,) etc.
Part of the discussion will centre on the International Maritime Organization (IMO) series of resolutions on transforming the entire maritime sector into more environmentally friendly via a series of measures addressing the emission reduction of ships and ports (serving travellers, cargo handling, fuel bunkering etc.) in the maritime transport chain.
The session will discuss the roadmap needed for the sustainability of the ocean and maritime sector including ports and ships, and the demand for new knowledge, skills and standards.
Abstract
The session comprises two panels one focused on marine-based carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) and the other panel on what the maritime industry is doing to address ocean pollution and environmental sustainability.
The session on sustainable oceans will focus on the importance of monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) for marine-based carbon dioxide removal (mCDR).
The maritime industry panel will focus on case studies and examples of what is being done to address the implementation of sustainable shipping and port solutions to reduce their environmental impact.
Each panellist will present their technical perspective for 10 minutes. Then questions will be posed to all panellists to discuss the interdependence of technology developments and policy requirements.
Expected outcomes
This session will identify the technical and policy challenges that ocean sustainability is currently facing, outing roadmaps and identify areas where further work is still needed.
One panel will result in a summary of what is needed to enable MRV for mCDR. This summary of technical and policy challenges will inform an upcoming workshop organized by the IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society, in which 20-30 domain experts will explore in detail the technology steps needed for effective MRV to be applied at the scales needed. The workshop will produce an initial MRV Roadmap.
The Maritime industry discussion will contribute to the development of an approach to further the work to reduce ocean shipping and port pollution as well as contribute to the development of a set of resolutions to address ocean-specific environmental deployment solutions through the identification of the challenges that maritime decarbonization has encountered. For example, electrification, where applicable, offers flexibility to this end but requires formulation of the regulatory and green electricity pricing policy framework so that the maritime sector is aligned with the electric energy market rules, including identifying new types of electric grids that need to be developed for shipping ports and onboard ships to meet decarbonization targets.