The 2024 World Science and Technology Development Forum (WSTDF) held a thematic session in Beijing on Oct. 23 focused on "Interdisciplinary Science-Based Solutions Towards Sustainable Development," bringing together global experts to discuss ocean-based solutions for climate change mitigation. 

Excessive emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) from human activities are the main driver of climate change, while "negative carbon emissions" refers to the proactive absorption and sequestration of CO2 through human interventions based on natural ecosystems. Theoretically, when negative emissions equal emissions, carbon neutrality is achieved.

The ocean is the largest active carbon reservoir on Earth, and has historically played a significant role in regulating climate. As carbon neutrality becomes a global consensus, countries are increasingly paying attention to the oceans, which cover over 70% of the Earth's surface. 

The Global Ocean Negative Carbon Emissions (Global-ONCE) program was proposed by Chinese scientists with the aim of building an international network of projects and experts to coordinate research in different aspects on ocean-based solutions for climate mitigation. The program was approved by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO as an international program of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030) (Ocean Decade) in 2022, and has now been joined by 79 teams from 33 countries.

At the thematic session, Jiao Nianzhi, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and chief scientist of the Global-ONCE program, introduced the ocean-based solution to scientists from a variety of fields. He said that for China and other developing countries, equal importance should be attached to carbon emission reduction and economic development. Negative emissions theory offers a win-win solution that allows more room for economic growth, while increasing carbon sinks and addressing climate change so that these countries can fulfill their international responsibilities, he added. 

In order to promote the ONCE program globally, Jiao said that a series of international standards should be developed to provide guidance on relevant scientific research and application projects. The program has already made a big step in this regard by establishing a working group on ocean negative carbon emissions and carbon neutralization under the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). In addition, four international Global-ONCE hubs have been established — the Asia Hub, Europe Hub, Africa Hub, and the China-Spain Joint Laboratory — the signing ceremonies for which were also held at the session.

The U.N. Secretary-General's Special Envoy for the Ocean Peter Thomson spoke highly of the Global-ONCE program, saying that advanced strategies that can both remove carbon from the atmosphere and improve marine ecosystems offer dual benefits in mitigating climate change while tackling ocean pollution. In doing so, pollution scenarios are turned into carbon sink projects, and facilities traditionally seen as cost centers, such as wastewater treatment plants, may be turned into profit centers by integrating negative emission technologies. 

Thomson believes that the root of the climate crisis lies in the complex relationship between economic development and environmental sustainability, the age-old struggle between exploitation and conservation, which threatens every aspect of the future. He said: "Science alone cannot solve the climate crisis. We need to integrate the expertise of engineers, marine biologists, economists, policymakers and innovators. Together, we can design solutions that are technically viable, legally compliant and economically sustainable." He added that international cooperation will be essential to scale these innovations and ensure they are accessible to all nations, particularly those most vulnerable to climate change. 

Zhang Jing'an, president of the China Science and Technology System Reform Research Association, said that interdisciplinary collaboration is the way forward in the face of climate change. "The most valuable innovations are seen from cross-disciplinary, cross-sectional and cross-regional collaborations," he said. "This requires the integration of global resources and the merging of different fields. It's not simply a matter of connecting disciplines, but of fostering deeper exchanges between talents in various fields with open minds, which leads to integrated and collaborative innovation."

Anderson Shum, vice-president and chair professor at City University of Hong Kong, whose research focuses on areas such as bio-microfluidics and biomedical engineering, expressed his wish to cooperate with marine biologists and other scientists to use tools like microfluidic devices to measure the environmental conditions and changes. He remarked that technologies are often first developed for other purposes, such as biomedical purposes, but the capabilities can easily be extended to help the environment. "During dialogues and workshops of this kind, each expert is sharing expertise from his (or her) own view on technology applications, and then other experts can make suggestions on how the technologies can help to make the world more sustainable," he said. "That's where I think the interdisciplinary science will really make a difference in future."

Patricia Glibert, professor at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, focused her speech on several important questions that do not yet have answers. These include: Is the science ready to move forward? What is the effectiveness, cost and scalability of the technology? Is the strategy appropriate regionally, or will it have a global effect? What is the possibility that we will create unfavorable conditions? And ultimately, how do we achieve the science we need for the ocean we want?

She said: "In many ways international cooperation can help. One is that we bring the best minds together to understand these problems. The other is that we bring independent minds for validation, verification and evaluation. We have talents around the world working on these issues, and this is the way we're going to move forward."

2024 WSTDF was held in Beijing from Oct. 22 to 24. This year's forum focused on the theme "Science and Technology for the Future," addressing topics such as artificial intelligence, ocean negative carbon emissions, open science, intelligent manufacturing, urban health and disaster prevention. Founded in 2019 by the China Association for Science and Technology, the forum aims to gather global intelligence, inspire innovative ideas and establish a non-governmental platform for scientific and technological exchanges, so as to provide sci-tech power and global solutions for sustainable development.