Policy & Communications

We work alongside many partners to unlock public funding for OAE and advocate for regulatory frameworks that can promote responsible and effective research.

What We’re Doing

Government plays a critical role in providing support and regulatory guardrails for innovation and knowledge development in ocean-based CDR – like it does in the climate space broadly.

Public funding is an essential complement to early investment from the private sector and philanthropy — helping to promote high-quality research towards safely and permanently reducing atmospheric CO2. Leading global and national scientific bodies have identified OAE as a high-potential climate solution, and financial analysts have cited ocean-based CDR as an industry with significant economic potential.

Governments have a valuable opportunity to lead the way on research support for OAE and reap the climate and economic rewards in the coming years. Just in 2023 and 2024, the U.S. government has made historic investments of nearly $61.5 million to advance the ocean-climate space.

That funding is a complement to the work of the White House Fast-Track Action Committee on marine CDR, the Ocean Climate Action Plan, the interagency National Oceanographic Partnership Program, DOE’s ARPA-E program, and the DOE and NOAA memorandum of agreement. Carbon to Sea continues to advocate for further federal investment and supportive policy, with particular focus on the promise of OAE.

Policy Priorities

Carbon to Sea works to engage policymakers and public agencies on OAE’s potential, secure federal investment and partnerships for high-quality research, and promote a responsible regulatory framework for research efforts. Our policy priorities include:

Unlock Public Funding

Expanding existing government programs or creating new ones when needed for oCDR research.

Establish Clear, Responsible Legal Frameworks

Clarifying regulatory and permitting pathways for responsible oCDR research to occur.

Design and Secure Public Incentives

Incentivizing and enabling oCDR research through scientifically rigorous tax policy and inclusive public procurement efforts.

Key federal ocean-based carbon dioxide removal investments in FY23 included:

$23.7 million

in grants from the interagency National Oceanographic Partnership Program supporting 17 projects representing academic and government researchers and private industry. This is the first large-scale public investment of research specifically focused on a suite of marine carbon dioxide removal approaches to assess their potential as climate mitigation solutions.

This research will enhance understanding of their risks and co-benefits, and provide the science needed to build regulatory frameworks for further testing and scaling.

$35.8 million

in grants for development of sensing and modeling technology for MRV awarded by DOE’s ARPA-E program. This funding supports 11 projects across eight states to develop novel efforts to measure and model ocean-based carbon dioxide removal (oCDR) and identify cost effective and energy-efficient CDR solutions.

Nearly $2 million

in small grants from DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management for design, modeling, and field validation of various oCDR technologies.

Support for conceptual design studies followed by field validations of cost-effective processes for ocean-based carbon capture and for direct air capture of CO₂ coupled with carbon-free hydrogen and captured CO₂ to create carbon-neutral methanol, a chemical building block for many valuable products.

Selected projects will support the cost and performance goals of DOE’s Carbon Negative Shot initiative, which calls for innovation in CDR pathways that will capture CO₂ from the atmosphere and permanently store it at meaningful scales for less than $100/net metric ton of CO₂-equivalent.

$35 Million

in what appears to be the world’s first government CDR offset procurement project, an initial investment of $35 million ($5 million for project development and $30 million for CDR offtake contracts) was made in the program’s launch.

Major provisions related to oCDR in the final FY24 appropriations legislation included:

$118 million

(a $22 million decrease from FY23) for DOE’s cross-cutting CDR initiative, which includes oCDR.

$20 million

to continue DOE’s competitive CDR purchasing pilot program.

$250,000

for DOE to work with other agencies and industry partners toward a clear regulatory process to develop, test, and evaluate oCDR.

Recent Policy Updates