Symposium on Marine Carbon Sequestration

On May 11th EMBRC-BE and ILVO will organize a Symposium on Marine Carbon Sequestration to assess the opportunities of oceans, seas and estuaries in reducing the causes and consequences of climate change, globally and locally.

To meet the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius, greenhouse gas emissions must reach net-zero by mid-century. Achieving this will not only require reducing existing emissions in all sectors, but also the deliberate removal of atmospheric greenhouse gasses by human actions. By bringing scientists, political, industrial and non-governmental parties together the symposium aims at identifying the potential of such negative emission technologies and the required knowledge development that is still needed, thereby setting the scene for future actions in support of adopting ocean-inclusive mitigation and adaptation strategies by Belgian parties in an (inter)national context.

The symposium will take places at Ostend Science Park, Bluebridge. Participation to the symposium is free but registration before May 4th is mandatory. Register now via this link. For more information feel free to contact embrc@ugent.be.

                                                 Abstracts & Pictures

Abstracts can be found on this page.

Pictures of the event can be found here.

Programme

• • 8:30 Registration & coffee

  • 9:15 Welcome. Noémie Wouters, CEO Bluebridge
  • 9:20 Introduction. Ann Vanreusel, Director EMBRC-BE
  • 9:30 Opening keynote
    • Ocean-based climate action with a focus on negative emissions measures. Jean-Pierre Gattuso, CNRS Sorbonne University and Iddri
  • 10:15 Open ocean carbon: natural processes
    • The open ocean biological carbon pump. Griet Neukermans, Ghent University
  • 10:30 Coffee break
• • 11:00 Open ocean carbon: marine geoengineering
    • Ocean fertilisation. Christine Klaas, Alfred Wegener Institut
    • Ocean alkalinisation. Filip Meysman, Antwerp University
  • 11:30 Marine bioenergy with carbon capture and storage
    • Seaweed cultivation. Olivier De Clerck, Ghent University
    • Shellfish aquaculture. Edwin Foekema, Wageningen University & Research
  • 12:00 Restoration and conservation of natural ecosystems
    • Restoring and increasing coastal vegetation. Patrick Meire, Antwerp University
    • Conserving seabed carbon sequestration. Ulrike Braeckman, Ghent University
    • Demersal fisheries and seabed carbon sequestration. Hans Polet, Flanders Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
  • 12:45 Lunch

  • 13:50 Welcome afternoon session. Vincent Van Quickenborne, Minister of North Sea

  • 14:00 The policy of ocean-based climate mitigation. Steven Dauwe, Flanders Marine Institute
  • 14:15 The businesscase of marine carbon capture and the effects of the measurement method (on the businesscase). Stephan Bostoen, Pebblewave
  • 14:30 Assessing the potential for ocean-based global climate action by Belgian parties. Pannel discussion. Moderator: Marijn Rabaut
  • 15:15 Coffee break
  • 15:45 Challenges for marine carbon sequestration and applications. Helmuth Thomas, Hereon
  • 16:00 Closing + Network reception