The modern ocean contains an enormous (38000 GtC) reservoir of carbon in dissolved form. Recent geological history shows that the oceans have repeatedly absorbed CO2 from the atmosphere during the periodic glacial periods and released it during the warm interglacial periods. This additional capacity for CO2 storage, untapped in the modern, is on the order of 800 GtC, an amount equivalent to that which needs to be sequestered in the coming decades to attain net zero.

In the final talk in the series, Professor Ros Rickaby, Roxana Shafiee and Sophie Gill will explore with Professor Myles Allen the various approaches being proposed to store and preserve CO2 in the ocean, many inspired by mechanisms known to function naturally in the past, and assess the challenges and research hurdles for their implementation in the future.

Ros Rickaby, Sophie Gill, Roxana Shafiee and Myles Allen in conversation: "CO2 solutions: ocean carbon storage options"