Ocean Carbon Sequestration: A Case Study in Public and Institutional Perceptions

Abstract

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization of Japan (NEDO), and Norwegian Research Council (NRC) entered into a Project Agreement for International Collaboration on CO2 Ocean Sequestration in Kyoto on December 4, 1997. By signing the agreement during the Third Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP-3), the groups demonstrated their commitment to mitigating climate change, but also opened themselves to international scrutiny. DOE, NEDO and NRC agreed to an initial field experiment on ocean carbon sequestration via direct injection. These original ‘sponsors” were later joined by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) of Australia, Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) and the Swiss/Swedish firm Asea Brown Bovery (ABB). The sponsors created a Steering Committee (SC) to manage the direction of the project. In addition, a Technical Committee (TC) consisting of the participating research institutions was formed to guide scientific aspects. The purpose of the initial experiment was to secure reliable field data that could be applied to understand how the chemical environment of the deep ocean is perturbed by direct injection. The data would be used to develop models to accurately predict chemical changes for a range of injection scenarios. This would be the first critical step in understanding the environmental impacts of the direct injection of CO2 into the ocean.