Seafields’ faulty promises in the Caribbean (summary)

(Texto em português abaixo)

FULL REPORT COMING SOON: 

www.etcgroup.org/content/farming-ocean-carbon-market-profit

Seafields, a UK based start-up company, plans to scale up seaweed production in the Caribbean Sea, primarily to generate carbon credits in the carbon market. It is growing the invasive Sargassum seaweed species, and has plans to expand beyond the Caribbean, establishing a ‘giga-farm’ in the south Atlantic gyre covering ~0.7 million km² – an area roughly the size of Zambia.

Seafields aims to use two controversial ‘carbon removal’ technologies – sinking seaweed in the deep ocean and ‘artificial upwelling’ (AU) which pumps cool deep ocean water to the surface. Both are examples of controversial and risky marine geoengineering technologies, which aim to alter the Earth’s oceans in the name of climate mitigation. Both are false solutions, remaining theoretical and unproven as carbon sequestration methods.

Because of the deleterious effects these two technologies can have on the ocean, they are currently monitored under The London Convention and London Protocol (LC/LP), which oversee activities that could pollute the marine environment. Nevertheless, Seafields continues to advance its project in the Caribbean, with the false promise that it will address Latin America’s Sargassum inundation crisis – by growing even more Sargassum! In order for their business model to be profitable, the initial problem must persist. 

Our oceans are not a testing ground for profit-driven experiments or carbon-market gambling!

We recommend:

• The UN and governments should uphold the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) moratorium on geoengineering and apply the precautionary principle on geoengineering under the London Convention and London Protocol.
• Exclude discussions on seaweed-based carbon credit schemes under the carbon market mechanisms mentioned in Article 6 of the Paris Agreement within the UNFCCC framework. and other relevant fora.
• Protect seaweed commons which are cared for by seaweed gatherers, Indigenous Peoples’ and coastal communities. 
• Prioritize community-led, small-scale seaweed farms that support ocean health and local livelihoods.