OAeSIS

OAeSIS is a Horizon Europe project which aims at developing a better understanding of Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement (OAE), which is a marine Carbon Dioxide Removal (mCDR) technique that may have a significant role in facilitating large scale CO2 removal to substantially reduce global warming and ocean acidification. PSI’s Technology Assessment group contributes by performing techno-economic and environmental assessments of different OAE approaches.

Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement (OAE) is a marine Carbon Dioxide Removal (mCDR) technique that may have a significant role in facilitating large scale CO2 removal to substantially reduce global warming and ocean acidification. However, considerable uncertainties and knowledge gaps remain regarding its efficacy, technological and economic viability, its environmental and ecological impacts and its governance. The OAeSIS project addresses these concerns by:

  • Identifying the social, ethical, and governance constraints on OAE deployment, enabling actor-specific principles and best practices for the co-design of OAE initiatives
  • Improving understanding of the biogeochemical processes and interactions of OAE deployment, and how they may affect its efficiency
  • quantifying the scaling potential of OAE and its climate change mitigation capacity
  • quantifying the impacts of OAE on key species, communities and biodiversity, including interactions with other marine ecosystem stressors
  • assessing the feasibility and sustainability of OAE as a tool to counteract climate change and ocean acidification

To achieve these goals, OAeSIS engages a diverse, interdisciplinary team of leading experts in law, governance, and socio-economic assessments of the climate-biodiversity and ocean nexus, laboratory and field studies on the biogeochemistry of OAE, the stressors that affect individual organisms, communities, and biodiversity, climate and biogeochemical modelling, integrated assessment modelling, and life cycle assessment. Combining and integrating this expertise will enable the project consortium to simultaneously improve scientific knowledge, provide understanding and guidance on social acceptance, regulation and governance, and increase the policy relevance of our outputs. In doing so, the ability to evaluate the benefits and impacts associated with OAE will be advanced, enabling informed decision-making and policy-making regarding the potential application of this leading mCDR approach as a climate mitigation tool.

PSI’s Technology Assessment group contributes by performing techno-economic and environmental assessments of different OAE approaches.

  • Fondazione Centro Euro-mediterraneosui Cambiamenti Climatici
  • National Oceanography Centre
  • Paul Scherrer Institut
  • University Of Waterloo
  • Plymouth Marine Laboratory Limited
  • Ruder Boskovic Institute
  • Goeteborgs Universitet
  • Barcelona Supercomputing Center Centro Nacional De Supercomputacion
  • University Of Hamburg
  • Iaea In Monaco