Combating Climate Change Through Carbon Dioxide Removal from the Oceans

The lecture, titled “Ocean Solutions for the Climate Crisis: Understanding Marine Carbon Dioxide Removal,” was held on Friday, 31 May at 4 PM in Aula Giorgio Prodi (Piazza San Giovanni in Monte, 2 - Bologna) by Professor Emanuele Di Lorenzo.

This was the fourth annual event resulting from the collaboration between the University of Bologna and Brown University. Starting from the link between innovation and environmental management, Professor Di Lorenzo discussed the role of Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) from the oceans in the fight against climate change and the latest research frontiers in this field. He shed light on the technical, social, and political challenges to preserving marine ecosystem functions.

As President and co-founder of Ocean Visions, Di Lorenzo presented the activities of this non-profit organization, which was created to find solutions to climate change by leveraging the potential of the oceans. Leading a unified front that included universities and institutions active in scientific and engineering research, in a perspective of fundamental interdisciplinary collaboration, Ocean Visions marked a significant step towards creating a Global Ecosystem for Ocean Solutions (GEOS).

During the lecture, the initiatives of the GEOS programme, undertaken within the framework of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development 2021–2030, were illustrated. This programme was established to protect the oceans and revolutionize the use of ocean sciences in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The new UN Center on Ocean Climate Solutions, hosted by Ocean Visions, was also presented, aiming to catalyse international support and resources needed to jointly tackle the global climate challenge.

The lecture concluded with the presentation of the new Ocean Vital Signs Network (OVSN), a visionary project designed to spread understanding of the marine carbon cycle, thus providing policymakers, researchers, and the global community with the foundations for informed decisions and targeted actions in the fight against climate change and the protection of our planet’s health for future generations.