Major actions for the Ocean Climate Action Plan
The Ocean Climate Action Plan (OCAP), released by the Biden-Harris Administration in March 2023, serves as a roadmap for taking ambitious actions on ocean climate priorities. Within the OCAP, marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) is a main theme under the goal of creating a carbon-neutral future. Also a priority topic was addressing ocean acidification.
In April 2024, the White House released an OCAP Progress Report to highlight the progress of Federal agencies in implementing this ambitious plan. The release of the U.S. Ocean Acidification Action Plan by NOAA and the U.S. State Department was highlighted as a key accomplishment in addressing and mitigating the impacts of a changing climate.
The report also highlights NOAA’s investment in mCDR research. This includes NOAA Ocean Acidification Program’s announcement of a $24 million investment in mCDR research, on behalf of the National Oceanographic Partnership Program (NOPP), and in partnership with DOE, the Office of Naval Research, the National Science Foundation (NSF), and Climateworks. The report also calls attention to NOAA and DOE’s funding of an mCDR research project at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s (PNNL), in partnership with Ebb Carbon, NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, and the University of Washington.
