A holistic assessment framework for marine carbon dioxide removal options

Christian Baatz; Lukas Tank; Lena-Katharina  Bednarz; Teresa Maria  Morganti; Miranda Boettcher; Lieske  Voget-Kleschin; Tony  Cabus; Erik  van Doorn; Tabea  Dorndorf; Felix  Havermann; Wanda  Holzhüter; David  Keller; Matthias Kreuzburg; Nele  Matz-Lück; Nadine Mengis; Christine  Merk; Yiannis  Moustakis; Julia Pongratz; Hendrikje  Wehnert; Wanxuan  Yao; Gregor Rehder

doi:10.1088/1748-9326/adc93f

A holistic assessment framework for marine carbon dioxide removal options

Christian Baatz^*, Lukas Tank, Lena-Katharina Bednarz, Teresa Maria Morganti, Miranda Boettcher, Lieske Voget-Kleschin, Tony Cabus, Erik van Doorn, Tabea Dorndorf, Felix Havermann, Wanda Holzhüter, David Keller, Matthias Kreuzburg, Nele Matz-Lück, Nadine Mengis, Christine Merk, Yiannis Moustakis, Julia Pongratz, Hendrikje Wehnert, Wanxuan YaoGregor Rehder

^*Corresponding author for this work

Global Sustainability Governance

Research output: Contribution to journal › Letter › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) options could potentially play an important role in future CDR policy portfolios. They include, for example, ocean alkalinity enhancement, blue carbon projects such as mangrove cultivation, as well as sub-seabed storage of captured atmospheric CO2. In this paper we present a novel assessment framework designed for mCDR options. The framework provides important conceptual advancements to existing frameworks currently used to assess climate options: It clearly distinguishes between and allows for the assessment of both the feasibility and desirability of mCDR options, it makes explicit the evaluative standards upon which the assessment is based and it separates the descriptive listing of information from the evaluation of said information. The assessment framework aims to advance the debate on what role mCDR can and should play in responding to the climate crisis by providing a tool for both policymakers and stakeholders to assess mCDR options in a transparent and comprehensive way.

Original language	English
Article number	054047
Journal	Environmental Research Letters
Volume	20
Issue number	5
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/adc93f
Publication status	Published - Apr 2025

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd.

Funding

We like to thank our colleagues for valuable feedback from the other consortia of the CDRmare research mission (AIMS3, GEOSTOR, RETAKE, sea4soCiety, and Test-ArtUp), our sister research program CDRterra, as well as the participants in a series of stakeholder workshops held at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) in Berlin, Germany and the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research (IOW), Warnem\u00FCnde, Germany. We have furthermore benefited greatly from discussions with Oliver Geden, Antonia Holland-Cunz, Frederike Neuber, Alexander Schulan, Sven Hoog and Nils Wendler. Support for C.B., L.T., L.B., M.B., T.M., L.V.-K., T.C., E.v.D., W.H., D.K., M.K., N.M.-L., C.M., H.W., W.Y., and G.R. was provided by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) through ASMASYS (03F0898A-E), part of the Deutsche Allianz Meeresforschung (DAM) research mission on marine carbon storage for decarbonization. C.B. additionally acknowledges funding by the BMBF through the project ADJUST (01UU2001). T.D., F.H., Y.M., and J.P. were supported by the BMBF through the research project CDRSynTra (01LS2101A/C/G). N.M. is funded under the Emmy Noether scheme by the German Research Foundation \u2018FOOTPRINTS\u2014From carbOn remOval To achieving the PaRIs agreemeNt\u2019s goal: Temperature Stabilisation\u2019 (ME 5746/1\u20101). We like to thank our colleagues for valuable feedback from the other consortia of the CDRmare research mission (AIMS, GEOSTOR, RETAKE, sea4soCiety, and Test-ArtUp), our sister research program CDRterra, as well as the participants in a series of stakeholder workshops held at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) in Berlin, Germany and the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research (IOW), Warnem\u00FCnde, Germany. We have furthermore benefited greatly from discussions with Oliver Geden, Antonia Holland-Cunz, Frederike Neuber, Alexander Schulan, Sven Hoog and Nils Wendler. Support for C.B., L.T., L.B., M.B., T.M., L.V.-K., T.C., E.v.D., W.H., D.K., M.K., N.M.-L., C.M., H.W., W.Y., and G.R. was provided by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) through ASMASYS (03F0898A-E), part of the Deutsche Allianz Meeresforschung (DAM) research mission on marine carbon storage for decarbonization. C.B. additionally acknowledges funding by the BMBF through the project ADJUST (01UU2001). T.D., F.H., Y.M., and J.P. were supported by the BMBF through the research project CDRSynTra (01LS2101A/C/G). N.M. is funded under the Emmy Noether scheme by the German Research Foundation \u2018FOOTPRINTS\u2014From carbOn remOval To achieving the PaRIs agreemeNt\u2019s goal: Temperature Stabilisation\u2019 (ME 5746/1\u20101).

Funders	Funder number
Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research
German Institute for International and Security Affairs
Alexander Schulan, Sven Hoog and Nils Wendler
Leibniz-Institut für Ostseeforschung Warnemünde
SWP
Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung	03F0898A-E
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft	ME 5746/1‐1
Deutsche Allianz Meeresforschung	01LS2101A/C/G, 01UU2001

Keywords

assessment criteria
assessment framework
climate change
desirability
feasibility
marine carbon dioxide removal
mitigation

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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Baatz_2025_Environ._Res._Lett._20_054047Final published version, 1.4 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

Baatz, C., Tank, L., Bednarz, L.-K., Morganti, T. M., Boettcher, M., Voget-Kleschin, L., Cabus, T., van Doorn, E., Dorndorf, T., Havermann, F., Holzhüter, W., Keller, D., Kreuzburg, M., Matz-Lück, N., Mengis, N., Merk, C., Moustakis, Y., Pongratz, J., Wehnert, H., ... Rehder, G. (2025). A holistic assessment framework for marine carbon dioxide removal options. Environmental Research Letters, 20(5), Article 054047. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/adc93f

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abstract = "Marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) options could potentially play an important role in future CDR policy portfolios. They include, for example, ocean alkalinity enhancement, blue carbon projects such as mangrove cultivation, as well as sub-seabed storage of captured atmospheric CO2. In this paper we present a novel assessment framework designed for mCDR options. The framework provides important conceptual advancements to existing frameworks currently used to assess climate options: It clearly distinguishes between and allows for the assessment of both the feasibility and desirability of mCDR options, it makes explicit the evaluative standards upon which the assessment is based and it separates the descriptive listing of information from the evaluation of said information. The assessment framework aims to advance the debate on what role mCDR can and should play in responding to the climate crisis by providing a tool for both policymakers and stakeholders to assess mCDR options in a transparent and comprehensive way.",

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author = "Christian Baatz and Lukas Tank and Lena-Katharina Bednarz and Morganti, {Teresa Maria} and Miranda Boettcher and Lieske Voget-Kleschin and Tony Cabus and {van Doorn}, Erik and Tabea Dorndorf and Felix Havermann and Wanda Holzh{\"u}ter and David Keller and Matthias Kreuzburg and Nele Matz-L{\"u}ck and Nadine Mengis and Christine Merk and Yiannis Moustakis and Julia Pongratz and Hendrikje Wehnert and Wanxuan Yao and Gregor Rehder",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2025 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd.",

year = "2025",

month = apr,

doi = "10.1088/1748-9326/adc93f",

language = "English",

volume = "20",

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Baatz, C, Tank, L, Bednarz, L-K, Morganti, TM, Boettcher, M, Voget-Kleschin, L, Cabus, T, van Doorn, E, Dorndorf, T, Havermann, F, Holzhüter, W, Keller, D, Kreuzburg, M, Matz-Lück, N, Mengis, N, Merk, C, Moustakis, Y, Pongratz, J, Wehnert, H, Yao, W & Rehder, G 2025, 'A holistic assessment framework for marine carbon dioxide removal options', Environmental Research Letters, vol. 20, no. 5, 054047. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/adc93f

TY - JOUR

T1 - A holistic assessment framework for marine carbon dioxide removal options

AU - Baatz, Christian

AU - Tank, Lukas

AU - Bednarz, Lena-Katharina

AU - Morganti, Teresa Maria

AU - Boettcher, Miranda

AU - Voget-Kleschin, Lieske

AU - Cabus, Tony

AU - van Doorn, Erik

AU - Dorndorf, Tabea

AU - Havermann, Felix

AU - Holzhüter, Wanda

AU - Keller, David

AU - Kreuzburg, Matthias

AU - Matz-Lück, Nele

AU - Mengis, Nadine

AU - Merk, Christine

AU - Moustakis, Yiannis

AU - Pongratz, Julia

AU - Wehnert, Hendrikje

AU - Yao, Wanxuan

AU - Rehder, Gregor

PY - 2025/4

Y1 - 2025/4

N2 - Marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) options could potentially play an important role in future CDR policy portfolios. They include, for example, ocean alkalinity enhancement, blue carbon projects such as mangrove cultivation, as well as sub-seabed storage of captured atmospheric CO2. In this paper we present a novel assessment framework designed for mCDR options. The framework provides important conceptual advancements to existing frameworks currently used to assess climate options: It clearly distinguishes between and allows for the assessment of both the feasibility and desirability of mCDR options, it makes explicit the evaluative standards upon which the assessment is based and it separates the descriptive listing of information from the evaluation of said information. The assessment framework aims to advance the debate on what role mCDR can and should play in responding to the climate crisis by providing a tool for both policymakers and stakeholders to assess mCDR options in a transparent and comprehensive way.

AB - Marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) options could potentially play an important role in future CDR policy portfolios. They include, for example, ocean alkalinity enhancement, blue carbon projects such as mangrove cultivation, as well as sub-seabed storage of captured atmospheric CO2. In this paper we present a novel assessment framework designed for mCDR options. The framework provides important conceptual advancements to existing frameworks currently used to assess climate options: It clearly distinguishes between and allows for the assessment of both the feasibility and desirability of mCDR options, it makes explicit the evaluative standards upon which the assessment is based and it separates the descriptive listing of information from the evaluation of said information. The assessment framework aims to advance the debate on what role mCDR can and should play in responding to the climate crisis by providing a tool for both policymakers and stakeholders to assess mCDR options in a transparent and comprehensive way.

KW - assessment criteria

KW - assessment framework

KW - climate change

KW - desirability

KW - feasibility

KW - marine carbon dioxide removal

KW - mitigation

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U2 - 10.1088/1748-9326/adc93f

DO - 10.1088/1748-9326/adc93f

M3 - Letter

SN - 1748-9326

VL - 20

JO - Environmental Research Letters

JF - Environmental Research Letters

IS - 5

M1 - 054047

ER -

A holistic assessment framework for marine carbon dioxide removal options

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

UN SDGs

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