Sequestration WS

Introduction
Workshop Topics and Goals
Planning Committee
First Committee Meeting Logistics
Draft Agenda
Background Documents and Information

Introduction

Although much relevant research has been conducted in the past decade, there does not yet exist a sufficient body of knowledge in the peer-reviewed scientific literature to allow assessments of the potential efficiency or risks associated with purposeful sequestration. While a number of workshops have been held over the last few years, they have focused on either surface fertilization or deep injection, but not both, and the syntheses of the workshop findings have been shaped in part by special interest groups rather than by the science alone. Ocean carbon sequestration science does not have a clear programmatic home in any of the global research programmes, but clearly the community has a need to convene, share information about the latest findings, and plan the direction of future research on these issues. SCOR and the IOC have agreed to host an international workshop to address the full range of scientific issues surrounding purposeful sequestration of carbon in the oceans, with the goal of producing a special issue of a peer-reviewed scientific journal that may provide a sound and unbiased scientific synthesis needed for assessments.

Workshop Topics and Goals

The agenda will be developed by the planning committee in February 2003. In order to meet the goal of the symposium, SCOR and IOC will bring together representatives of the international community of biological oceanographers, chemical oceanographers, physical oceanographers, marine biologists, and atmospheric scientists for three days to address questions such as the following:

· What will be the effects of rising atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations on the ocean?
· What are the potential effects of ocean carbon sequestration on marine organisms: on the phytoplankton species present in fertilized ecosystems, phytoplankton biomass, bottom-up effects on higher trophic levels, deep-ocean ecosystems, and on food-web structures?
· How might ocean carbon sequestration affect other elemental cycles, as a result of changing pH, redox conditions, etc.?
· How will the effectiveness and effects of ocean carbon sequestration differ under normal circulation of the ocean versus a changed thermohaline circulation?
· What have we learned to date from surface fertilization and deep-ocean injection experiments, as well as modeling studies, about the potential effectiveness and effects of ocean carbon sequestration?
· How reversible (and on what time scales) would the potential negative effects of ocean carbon sequestration be?
· How permanent would ocean carbon sequestration be?
· What experiments and modeling studies are needed to reduce uncertainties?

Planning Committee

Ralph Cicerone, Chair (USA)
Jim Orr (France)
Peter Brewer (USA)
John Cullen (Canada)
Phil Boyd (New Zealand)
Hans-Otto Poertner (Germany)
Peter Haugan (Norway)
Jim McWilliams (USA)
Takashi Ohsumi (Japan)
Liliane Merlivat (France)
Silvio Pantoja (Chile)

First Committee Meeting Logistics

17-18 February 2003, U.S. National Academies Beckman Center, Irvine, California

Draft Agenda

SCOR-IOC Planning Committee for Ocean Carbon Sequestration Symposium
U.S. National Academies Beckman Center
Irvine, California
Feb. 17-18, 2003

February 17 (Monday)

7:45 a.m. Shuttle to Beckman Center

8:15 a.m. Breakfast

9:00 a.m. Welcome, Background for Activity, and Goals of Meeting -
Ralph Cicerone, Ed Urban, Maria Hood

9:30 a.m. Update on Related Efforts
SCOR-IOC Advisory Panel on Ocean CO2 - Maria Hood
IPCC - Peter Haugan, Peter Brewer
Others?

10:30 a.m. Discuss Output of Symposium
Special Issue of Peer-Reviewed Journal - Which One?
Summary recommendations from working groups?

11:15 a.m. Determine Format of Symposium
All Plenary?
Plenary and Working Groups?

12:00 noon Lunch

1:00 p.m. Identify Topics to be Covered and Speakers

5:00 p.m. Close for the day

6:00 p.m. Committee Dinner

February 18 (Tuesday)

9:00 a.m. Review Draft Symposium Agenda

10:30 a.m. Identify Other Invitees

11:15 a.m. Discuss Approaches to Additional Funding Sources
Registration Fee?
Agree to Timetable for Symposium Preparations

3:00 p.m. Adjourn

Questions for Members Unable to Attend
1. Should the symposium consist of all plenary presentations, or also include working groups that would produce science recommendations?
2. The grant specifies that a special issue of a peer-reviewed journal will be produced. What journal would be the best place to publish the symposium results? Should a summary and recommendations be produced for funding agencies and policy makers?
3. What topics should be included on the symposium agenda?
4. What speakers should be approached to cover the topics you have identified?
5. Who else should be invited, at their own expense, scientists and agency representatives?
6. What sources of funding might be available from your country?

Background Documents and Information

IPCC Activity on Carbon Capture and Storage - In November, the IPCC convened a workshop in Regina, Canada to discuss this issue and to propose to the IPCC the development of a Special Report on Carbon Capture and Storage. The decision to develop a Special Report will be made in February and, if approved, would be published in the first half of 2005. This workshop included ocean storage, but only direct inject is covered. Attending from our planning group were Peter Haugan, Peter Brewer, and Takashi Ohsumi. View the outline of the Chapters (pdf).

Dr. Pachauri, the new Chairman of the IPCC, has contacted Dr. Bernal (Executive Secretary, IOC) to invite us to nominate authors for this report, and to explore the possibility of combining the venue of our symposium with one fo the Lead Author meetings of the Special Report.

Reports from NETL and IEA - available on CO2 Panel Watching Brief Site

SCOR-IOC Watching Brief on Ocean Carbon Sequestration (web with print-friendly version)

SCOR-IOC Advisory Panel on Ocean CO2: Progress Report November 2002

Journal Information

Budget Information