About the project

Through Ocean Carbon Removal Watch, journalists Alexandra Talty and Allison Gacad explore the financial architecture backing the mCDR ecosystem alongside the science and governance of such efforts, supported by the Pulitzer Center.

The reported stories will take a deep dive into the operations of several projects worldwide, from ocean alkalinity enhancement in Canada to direct ocean capture in Singapore, unpacking how a nascent industry navigates the mechanics of mCDR amid the backdrop of a challenging macroeconomy and political appetite for the sector at large.

What is mCDR?

Marine Carbon Dioxide Removal (mCDR), also called ocean carbon removal, refers to methods that use the ocean to remove atmospheric carbon dioxide, including nature-based and engineered solutions. mCDR techniques fall into the following categories: biological carbon pump enhancement, chemical carbon removal, and electrochemical carbon removal.

These approaches will store carbon on different timescales depending on when and how they are carried out, and have different impacts on the environment.

Biomass growing / harvesting / sinking

farms seaweed in the open ocean, which are then sunk to the deep ocean

Biological enhancement

Knowledge base: Medium-high
Durability of storage: 10 to 100 years
Environmental Risks: Medium-high
Challenges in monitoring, regulation and verification: Medium

Ecosystem restoration

restores coastal ecosystems such as mangroves, seagrasses, and salt marshes that can sequester carbon dioxide

Biological enhancement

Knowledge base: High
Durability of storage: 10 to 100 years
Environmental Risks: Low
Challenges in monitoring, regulation and verification: High

Ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE)

adds alkaline substances to seawater to increase its alkalinity

Chemical mCDR

Knowledge base: Low-medium
Durability of storage: Over 100 years
Environmental Risks: Medium
Challenges in monitoring, regulation and verification: Medium

Electrochemical carbon removal

uses electricity to drive chemical reactions to either add alkalinity or directly remove CO2 from the seawater

Electrochemical mCDR

Knowledge base: Low-medium
Durability of storage: Over 100 years
Environmental Risks: Medium-high
Challenges in monitoring, regulation and verification: Medium-high

Source: mCDR characteristics compiled by Waterloo Climate Institute Policy Brief from leading reports (e.g. NASEM, 2022; CICE/IBET, 2024).

The project team

Allison Gacad

Allison is a journalist based in Vancouver, Canada, reporting on the economics and politics of climate solutions. She is an editor at Carbon Pulse, where she leads daily coverage of carbon markets and climate policy in the Americas. Allison has chased after environment ministers in Brazil, pressed energy executives in the UAE, and pestered traders worldwide to break news and pursue underreported stories.

Outside of writing she is an emergent filmmaker, having produced and hosted her first films in 2024 - a six-part docuseries on climate solutions in British Columbia. In brief past lives she was a scientist and urban farmer.

Alexandra Talty

Alexandra Talty is an ocean journalist. Investigating stories where business meets the sea, her work appears in The New York Times, The Guardian, and Outside Magazine, among others. She has been awarded past fellowships and support by the Pulitzer Center Ocean Reporting Network, Journalism Fund Europe, Knight-Wallace, and the National Press Foundation for Food and Agriculture. In addition to print journalism, Alexandra hosted “South Fork Sea Farmers,” a Long Island monthly television show dedicated to ocean and aquaculture topics, for two years.

Her 2025 investigation into ocean carbon removal for WIRED was given a New York Press Club award. A 2023 investigation into the American seaweed industry was given honorable mentions by SABEW and ASJA. In 2018, her Playboy investigation into LGBTQ+ rights in Lebanon was given an LA Press Club award, and in 2015, she was the founding editor-in-chief of StepFeed in the Middle East.