IPCC reports indicate that decarbonizing all of society will no longer be enough to meet our climate change goals.
In addition to eliminating carbon emissions by 2050, we must also remove some of the existing carbon pollution that has already been emitted. The ocean holds immense potential to support many kinds of climate solutions, and the technology required to prove and develop these solutions is expertise found within the community represented by the IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society.
Accessible ocean technology is needed to capture the ocean data and information needed to inform policy. Panelists will discuss some of the latest sensing innovations, along with standards and best practices, as well as how the precautionary principle is applied—or potentially inverted—in the context of mCDR. While often seen as a call for inaction amid uncertainty, the principle also supports proactive measures against serious environmental threats.
Panelists will examine how legal mandates intersect with technological limits in monitoring mCDR’s risks and benefits; they will also explore the latest progress in the technologies themselves and the interface between technology, policy, and industry needed to demonstrate safety and scale up these climate solutions.
Learn More About Ocean Sensing Technology and the Precautionary Principle
Ocean Sensing Technology Advancements
Ocean sensing technologies hold the potential to support better understanding and protection of ocean biodiversity and for the sustainability of ocean economies that sustain health and food supply, especially in small island communities.
Standards and best practices are essential to enable policy, technology, and science to measure, monitor, and sustainably manage ocean resources. This approach recognizes that low-cost sensors are often less accurate than high-end equivalents, but the statistical significance of many measurements in time and space that can be obtained relates to a different standard.
Invoking or Inverting the Precautionary Principle
Many understand the precautionary principle as the adage, when in doubt, to support inaction to “do no harm” to the environment. In fact, the precautionary principle is a central principle in environmental law that, given the uncertain impact of policy choices on the environment.
Agenda
- 8:00 – 8:10 AMWelcome and Introduction
- 8:10 – 9:00 AMPanel Discussion
- 9:00 – 9:30 AMInteractive Audience Q&A
- 9:30 AMAdjourn
Panelists
Dr. Anya Waite
Scientific Director and CEO, Ocean Frontier Institute
Associate Vice-President Research (Ocean), Dalhousie University
Cymie R. Payne
Chair, Ocean Law Specialist Group, International Union for Conseration of Nature
Faculty, Rutgers University
Ralph Rayner
IEEE OES Distinguished Lecturer
Professorial research fellow, London School of Economics, Grantham Research Institute on Climate and the Environment
Eric Siegal
Chief Innovation Officer, Ocean Frontier Institute
Christopher Whitt
Moderator
Principal Consultant, Whitt Consulting
Co-Sponsors
Register to Attend Technology and Policy to Inform and Accelerate a Sustainable Ocean
Join us as our engaging panel on technology, science, and the precautionary principle examines ocean sensing technologies, and how legal mandates intersect with human activity in the ocean— including Marine Carbon Dioxide Removal (mCDR).