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Paper short abstract

This paper examines how ocean scientists negotiate technoscientific frictions around marine C02 removal. The push for building climate “solutions” reshapes research agendas, uncertainty management, and scientists’ epistemic engagements, revealing competing ways of knowing and repairing in oceans.

Paper long abstract

Under the Paris Agreement, oceans are increasingly framed as climate infrastructures, expected to absorb and store carbon through emerging marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) techniques. These interventions are often presented as forms of “repair” - restoring a disrupted climate system. Yet, they may simultaneously risk altering marine ecosystems, introducing a fundamental tension between repairing the climate and potentially damaging the ocean.

This paper examines how this tension unfolds within ocean science. Drawing on Science and Technology Studies (STS), it analyses how mCDR reconfigures the relationship between building and repairing by turning the ocean into a site of experimental intervention. Empirically, the paper is based on qualitative interviews with scientists involved in mCDR research in France, and ethnographic observations conducted at conferences and international events between 2025 and 2026.

Many researchers currently engaged in mCDR previously studied the impacts of climate change on marine ecosystems, such as ocean acidification. Their shift toward solution-oriented research and geoengineering reflects broader techno-solutionist expectations, but also generates epistemic and ethical tensions. While some scientists frame mCDR as a necessary form of repair, others express concerns about ecological consequences and the legitimacy of intervening in complex marine environments. These tensions become particularly visible in small-scale experimental projects, such as ocean alkalinization trials conducted in already acidified coastal areas, which aim to “correct” local conditions while testing broader climate interventions.

The paper argues that mCDR research entangles repair and engineering, revealing contested ways of caring for and intervening in the ocean.