Engaging Coastal Communities on Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement

As marine carbon dioxide removal technologies like ocean alkalinity enhancement move from lab to field, attention to engaging local communities on this subject is growing. However, minimal information is currently available on structuring and implementing this kind of engagement.

This guide is intended as a resource to a diverse range of groups who may be looking to conduct (or review or fund) community engagement activities on ocean alkalinity enhancement. It draws on the authors’ experiences conducting engagement on ocean alkalinity enhancement in several different contexts, as well best practices from related fields and technologies.

This guide does the following:

• Introduces what we mean by ‘meaningful community engagement’ and its importance
• Describes how to tailor engagement to different stages of ocean alkalinity enhancement research and/or deployment
• Offers ideas for creative and interactive ways to work with communities to understand and deliberate on ocean alkalinity enhancement
• Discusses the ways that engagement with Indigenous communities requires additional attention, recognition and care
• Introduces 10 best practices to keep in mind when engaging communities
• Provides suggestions on key concepts to introduce when introducing ocean alkalinity enhancement
• Offers suggestions on navigating your role as an engagement practitioner when interacting with both participants and technology/project developers
• Shares examples of questions you might expect to receive when conducting engagement activities
• Describes three case studies of engagement on ocean alkalinity enhancement that the authors have conducted

This is the first version of this guide. We may update the guide in the future with additional resources, tools and guidance as these become available.