A Sidney-based company could end up being part of a major global prize.
The organization behind the Keeling Curve Prize has announced Oceans 2050 as one of the finalists in the category of greenhouse gas capture and utilization. Oceans 2050 studies sequestration of carbon by seaweed in sediment below seaweed farms and Cascadia Seaweed is the only Canadian company actively participating.
The Keeling Curve Prize awarded by Global Warming Mitigation Project bears the name of the late Charles David Keeling, a scientist who charted the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in Earth’s atmosphere since 1958 until his death in 2015.
Scientists consider Keeling the first scientist to have systematically drawn attention to the relationship between anthropogenic (human-made) climate change and the rising concentration of carbon-dioxide and the prize bearing his name aims to “bend the Keeling Curve” by identifying and supporting the world’s most promising global warming solutions projects, according to Jacquelyn Francis, founder and director of the Keeling Curve Prize, according to a news release.
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Oceans 2050 co-founder Alexandra Cousteau and Carlos Duarte first announced the study featuring Cascadia Seaweed Corp. in October 2020, advertising it as a “groundbreaking global study” that will help restore abundance to the world’s oceans while advancing climate restoration through seaweed aquaculture.
“In an effort to deliver this solution efficiently, we must advance the research while concurrently investing in the technologies to deliver large-scale offshore farms,” said Bill Collins, chair of Cascadia Seaweed Corp.
Canada has an opportunity to take the lead on this nature-based solution, said Collins. “Being just sustainable is not enough anymore, we need to be climate positive,” he said.
Sidney residents can learn more about Oceans 2050 and the seaweed farming project during the Cascadia Seaweed-led Seaweed Days Festival, taking place virtually from May 17 to 23.
Oceans 2050 is among 20 finalists competing across five categories and each of the 10 winning projects reducing greenhouse gas emissions or promote carbon uptake receives $25,000.
An international panel of judges from the private, public, and nonprofit sectors will select two winners in each category with the winners announced in June.
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