The US NOAA: National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration has taken a significant step in the fight against climate change by releasing its comprehensive Carbon Dioxide Removal (#CDR) Strategy. The effort was a collaboration across NOAA, led by the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, and involved more than 60 technical experts, 33 primary authors, and a 10-member executive advisory board.
What are NOAA’s key findings?
⚖️ NOAA's report delves into 11 diverse CDR technologies, presenting a balanced view of their strengths and weaknesses.
🌍 Leveraging Earth System Models and Regional Models, NOAA aims to develop CDR-specific modelling to project short- and long-term CDR impacts.
🌾 The report highlights the potential of soil carbon as a top contender due to its low cost and high effectiveness. What is NOAA’s strategic blueprint?
🛣 NOAA links its strategic assets to CDR development, outlining how its existing activities can leverage both CDR research and monitoring.
🎤 NOAA sees their role as a hub for carbon removal research, recognising the value of their existing research assets, programs, and activities in enhancing CDR research.
🌊 Their strategy is structured in three waves, progressing from parallel research assessing efficiency to mature CDR research and monitoring, preparing for gigaton-scale CDR projects.
🤝 Collaboration and stakeholder engagement are central themes, ensuring that NOAA's research aligns with real-world needs.
Overall, the assessment is detailed and a great contribution to the space. I was personally surprised not to see biochar carbon removal (#BCR) as its own category and batched under soil carbon, which seems to be favoured approach - something I do not fully agree with. The “effectiveness” assessment does also not resonate with my experience for all technologies, but still provides a helpful framework for analysis.
What do you think about NOAA’s analysis? Let me know in the comments 👇
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