The effects of climate change on the ocean are increasingly well understood, and researchers are eagerly searching for solutions to climate change that benefit ocean systems. Research and energy around marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) approaches are growing rapidly, but many important questions about mCDR have not been answered yet. U.S. government agencies are meeting the moment by developing internal and external partnerships to support scientific research, identifying the most urgent gaps in understanding, and ensuring that mCDR activities interact constructively with other parts of the blue economy. NOAA’s Ocean Acidification Program (OAP) is helping coordinate the U.S. mCDR research portfolio and integrating it with the nation’s longstanding investments in ocean carbon cycle observing, data management and synthesis, modeling, experiments, and community engagement.

Sarah Cooley joined NOAA’s Ocean Acidification Program in August 2024. For the previous decade, she directed Ocean Conservancy’s climate science portfolio and ocean acidification program. She was trained as an ocean carbon cycle scientist and numerical modeler, then moved into interdisciplinary science and policy. She served as a Coordinating Lead Author on the IPCC’s 6th Assessment Report and has provided expert testimony to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and U.S. House of Representatives. She has been involved in ocean acidification research and policy for most of her career as a scientist, community-builder, communicator, and advocate.

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