Knowledge Drop 2

Ocean Carbon Capturing for Net-Zero India

Syllabus: GS Paper 3 – Environment
Date: November 1 2025

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🌍 Context

Ocean-based carbon capture can help India reach Net Zero by 2070, turning its seas into engines of carbon removal and blue growth.

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⚙️ What is Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS)?

According to the IEA, CCUS is a suite of technologies that:

• Capture CO₂ from large, stationary emitters such as coal and gas plants.
• Transport it to storage or utilization sites.
• Store it in geological formations or utilize it in fuels, materials, or industrial cycles.

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🇮🇳 India’s Emission-Reduction Commitments

Under the updated Nationally Determined Contributions (2022):

1. Reduce emission intensity by 45 % by 2030 (from 2005 levels).
2. Ensure 50 % installed power capacity from non-fossil sources by 2030.
3. Create a carbon sink of 2.5–3 GtCO₂e through afforestation.
   Additionally, the LiFE Mission promotes sustainable lifestyles.

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🌊 Ocean-Based Negative-Emission Techniques

1. Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement (OAE) – Adds alkaline minerals (lime, olivine) to boost CO₂ absorption; ensures stable storage for > 100,000 years.
2. Biological Carbon Capture – Uses phytoplankton, seaweed, and microalgae via photosynthesis.
3. Ocean Fertilisation – Enriches selected waters with micronutrients (Fe, N, P) to enhance phytoplankton growth and deep-ocean sequestration.
4. Blue Carbon Ecosystems – Coral reefs, mangroves, and seagrass (covering ~8.3 % of the ocean) act as natural carbon vaults.
 Mangroves alone can store up to 1,000 tonnes C / hectare.

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🇮🇳 India’s Potential for Ocean-Based CCUS

• CO₂ Emissions: ~ 2.6 Gt/year — 3rd highest globally.
• Coastline: 11,098.8 km; EEZ: 2 million sq km — a vast carbon-sink frontier.
• Seaweed Farming (20 % of ocean area): Could remove 0.6–1 Gt CO₂ annually.
• OAE + Aquaculture: Synergistic path to durable storage + marine productivity.
• Carbon Re-use: Biofuels, pharmaceuticals, green hydrogen, fertilisers, biopolymers, construction materials → circular blue economy.

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⚠️ Challenges

• Ecological Risks: Altering seawater chemistry may disrupt marine biodiversity.
• Regulatory Gaps: No clear governance framework for marine carbon interventions.
• High Capital Costs: Pilot projects demand long-term finance and risk cushions.

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🌱 Way Ahead

1. Policy Integration: Include ocean-based CCUS in the National Carbon Capture Policy & Blue Economy Mission.
2. R & D Focus: Launch pilot studies on OAE and biological carbon farming under the Deep Ocean Mission.
3. Private Sector Mobilisation: Fiscal incentives + carbon credits for marine CDR start-ups.
4. Global Partnerships: Collaborate with Japan, Norway and EU for tech transfer & knowledge exchange.

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🧭 GS Paper Mapping

• GS 3 – Environment, Conservation, Climate Change
• GS 3 – Technology & Economic Development (Blue Economy)
• GS 2 – International Relations / Climate Diplomacy

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🌬️ IAS Monk Whisper

“When the sea learns to breathe again,
the sky will finally rest.”

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High Quality Mains Essay For Practice :

Word Limit 1000-1200

When the Ocean Learns to Breathe Again — Harnessing the Blue Frontier

GS Paper 3 – Environment | November 1, 2025

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I. Introduction – The Carbon We Breathe and the Sea That Listens

Every molecule of carbon that drifts in the wind carries a story older than life itself. Once it floated in the atmosphere of the young Earth, then sank into shells, forests, and fossils. Today, that same element has turned restless again, filling the air with an imbalance our planet cannot quietly bear. India’s pledge to reach Net Zero by 2070 is not merely a policy—it is a poetic promise to restore balance between breath and being.

In this new planetary dialogue, the ocean—the Earth’s deepest lung—emerges as both victim and saviour. Beneath its blue expanse lies the key to turning the tide of climate change. When science learns to speak in the language of waves, we discover an ancient truth: the ocean does not just store carbon—it dreams of transforming it.

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II. The Curious Imbalance of the Carbon Cycle

The Earth’s carbon cycle once danced with effortless precision. Plants drew carbon dioxide from the air, converted it to sugars, and exhaled oxygen. The oceans absorbed what remained, holding carbon within coral skeletons, plankton shells, and deep-sea sediments. But modern civilization—fueled by coal, oil, and convenience—has tilted this dance into a dangerous asymmetry.

Why can’t plants alone fix the imbalance?
Because photosynthesis, miraculous as it is, has limits. A leaf can only process carbon as fast as sunlight, water, and nutrients allow. The very forests that should be our carbon sentinels are shrinking under the axes of urban expansion. Of the roughly 36 billion tonnes of CO₂ emitted annually, global vegetation can absorb only about 11–12 billion tonnes—barely a third. What’s released by burning, breathing, and building far outweighs what the green world can inhale.

And why can’t the ocean complete the task?
The sea absorbs around 30% of human CO₂ emissions, but the chemistry of this generosity is complex. As CO₂ dissolves in seawater, it forms carbonic acid, which in turn reduces carbonate ions—the very building blocks for coral reefs and shell-forming organisms. This process, known as ocean acidification, weakens the biological pump that has kept the planet’s climate stable for millennia.

Thus arises the Curious Imbalance:

• The land biosphere cannot photosynthesise fast enough.
• The ocean cannot absorb indefinitely without losing its life-support chemistry.

Nature’s two greatest lungs are panting, and technology must now learn to breathe with them—not against them.

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III. India’s Blue Potential

India, with its 11,098-km coastline and 2 million sq km Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), sits at the confluence of sunlight and saltwater—an ideal stage for the next chapter of carbon management. From Gujarat’s tidal flats to the Andaman’s mangrove labyrinths, every ripple holds a fraction of the country’s future climate solution.

Under the Deep Ocean Mission, India is exploring subsea minerals, biodiversity, and now, ocean-based carbon sequestration. Seaweed farming, if extended over just 20% of our coastal waters, could absorb up to 1 gigatonne of CO₂ annually, while also producing food, biofuel, and fertilizer. Coastal ecosystems like mangroves and seagrasses, already known as “blue carbon vaults,” can store carbon at rates many times higher than terrestrial forests.

This “Blue Frontier” is not just geographical—it is moral and technological. To harness it wisely is to redefine India’s climate leadership from the Himalayas to the deep sea.

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IV. The Science and Promise of Ocean-Based Carbon Capture

The term CCUS (Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage) usually evokes industrial imagery—chimneys, pipelines, and reservoirs. But Ocean-Based CCUS adds a poetic dimension to this science.

1. Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement (OAE) – Adding naturally occurring minerals like lime or olivine to seawater increases its alkalinity, enhancing its ability to dissolve CO₂ and store it safely for over 100,000 years.
2. Ocean Fertilisation – By introducing trace elements like iron or phosphorus into nutrient-poor regions, phytoplankton blooms absorb large volumes of CO₂, much of which sinks to the deep ocean as organic carbon.
3. Biological Carbon Farming – Large-scale cultivation of seaweeds and microalgae that naturally absorb CO₂ through photosynthesis, later converted into fuels or bioplastics.

Each technique mimics nature’s own logic: to transform excess into equilibrium. Yet they also demand humility, for every technological intrusion into marine life carries an ethical undertone. The goal is not to conquer the ocean, but to collaborate with it.

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V. The Ethical Depth – Between Engineering and Empathy

The greatest challenge of ocean carbon capture is not technological—it is philosophical. Can humankind, which disrupted the planet in pursuit of progress, truly restore it through invention? When we dissolve limestone into the sea or fertilize waters to feed plankton, we alter entire ecosystems.

Here arises a moral paradox:
To heal the planet, we must touch it again; yet every touch risks another scar.

Environmental ethics thus requires a fusion of restraint and imagination.
As the IAS Monk would say: “We must not play god in the ocean, but rather, become its disciple.”

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VI. The Way Forward – India’s Path of Blue Innovation

1. Policy Integration: Incorporate marine carbon capture into the National Carbon Capture Policy and the Blue Economy Mission, ensuring regulatory clarity.
2. Pilot Demonstrations: Launch OAE and seaweed carbon farms under the Deep Ocean Mission, linking them to coastal livelihood programs.
3. Private Sector Participation: Offer carbon credits and fiscal incentives for companies investing in blue carbon restoration and marine CDR start-ups.
4. International Partnerships: Collaborate with global CCUS leaders—Japan, Norway, and the EU—for technology transfer, risk assessment, and data-sharing.
5. Education & Public Awareness: Embed the concept of “Blue Carbon Literacy” in India’s environmental curricula so that every student knows the ocean is not only water, but atmosphere in waiting.

If implemented with integrity, India could emerge as the world’s first developing economy to turn its coastline into a climate solution, not a casualty.

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VII. Conclusion – The Monk’s Reflection

There comes a moment in history when a nation’s science and soul meet upon the same shore. India stands there now. The ocean before us is not merely a body of water—it is a breathing possibility. If we listen closely, we may hear the pulse of plankton, the whisper of mangroves, the echo of coral skeletons, and within them, the planet’s quiet plea for balance.

When the ocean learns to breathe again, the sky too will sigh in relief.
Our task, therefore, is not just to remove carbon from the air but to restore harmony to the rhythm of existence itself.

The road to Net Zero is not paved in carbon credits alone—it is written in humility, innovation, and the faith that even the ocean, wounded yet vast, can learn once more to inhale the light of the sun and exhale the promise of tomorrow.

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IAS Monk Whisper:

“The ocean does not wait for miracles.
It becomes one—every time a wave returns.”

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