The Pact is structured around six key priorities: Protecting and restoring ocean health, boosting sustainable competitiveness of the blue economy, supporting coastal and island communities, advancing ocean research, knowledge, skills and innovation, enhancing maritime security and defence, and strengthening EU ocean diplomacy.

How does the EU Oceans Pact work in practice?

To deliver the Pact’s agenda, the Commission will propose the ‘Ocean Act’ in 2027. The Act will consolidate targets from the many ocean-related EU legislations and policies to ensure streamlined implementation. Progress on the Pact’s indicators and targets, including those for marine protected areas, pollution reduction, and ecosystem restoration, will be centralised through the new EU Ocean Pact Dashboard and overseen by a high-level Ocean Board.

The Pact plans to intensify investment in the sustainable blue economy through increased funding and support in EU initiatives. For example, the InvestEU, which provides financial guarantees to attract private investment for diverse projects, will continue providing blue economy projects with funding and advisory services. Additionally, the BlueInvest Platform, which supports ocean-related businesses by preparing them for investment and connecting them with investors, will ramp up support for the blue economy in parallel with the Ocean Act’s increased focus.

How does carbon removal fit into the EU Oceans Pact?

The EU Oceans Pact encourages the establishment of well-managed marine protected areas and “blue carbon reserves,” aligning with broader EU efforts under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive. It aims to ensure a healthy ocean capable of functioning as a robust natural carbon sink

Furthermore, the Pact places significant emphasis on ocean research and innovation, including an upcoming EU Ocean R&I Strategy that builds on the Horizon Europe R&I funding programme and the EU Mission ‘Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030’. The 2025-2027 Horizon Europe work programme features explicit calls dedicated to improving the scientific understanding of engineered marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) techniques, such as ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE). This direct focus within Horizon Europe indicates a potential emphasis on mCDR within the new EU Ocean R&I Strategy.

The Pact aligns strategically with the EU’s Clean Industrial Deal and the European Commission’s strategic agenda to boost the EU’s competitiveness while delivering the EU’s climate goals.

Of the Pact’s six key priorities, the following four hold relevance for CDR ecosystem development:

• Protecting and restoring ocean health: The Pact outlines the importance of ocean health due to ongoing marine biodiversity degradation and aims to optimise its natural carbon removal potential.
• Boosting the sustainable competitiveness of the blue economy: This priority seeks to drive innovation across ocean-related industries, including blue biotechnology and research and innovation in new technologies.
• Supporting coastal and island communities: Recognising the link between ocean health and community well-being, the Pact aims to foster local resilience and diversify income opportunities through science, technology, and innovation.
• Advancing ocean research, knowledge, skills, and innovation: The Pact aims to drive action to scale-up ocean observation, research and innovation to inform infrastructure development, decision makers and investors.

Building the Framework: Governance, Planning, and Funding

The upcoming Ocean Act will modernise the current Maritime Spatial Planning Directive, which currently manages the use of EU seas and oceans through human activities, such as fishing, aquaculture, shipping, renewable energy, and nature conservation. The Ocean Act will encourage Member States to transition from isolated national approaches to a more coordinated, sea-basin level strategy. The increased emphasis on regional cooperation and sea-basin approach aims to remove national silos, fostering shared responsibility and more effective management of marine ecosystems that transcend borders.

In addition to the funding initiatives for the sustainable blue economy, new efforts in the Pact are specifically targeting the scale-up of blue technology. For example, the EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy, with its ‘28th regime‘, will encourage regulatory simplification by reducing administrative burdens for tech companies. The European Investment Bank Group will also continue to de-risk private investment, specifically by improving the investment readiness of ocean innovators and enhancing advisory support through the Blue Champions initiative. Moreover, the EU Oceans Pact encourages Member States to leverage revenues from the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) and reinvest in decarbonising the shipping sector and innovative technologies and infrastructure.

Unlocking the Potential of mCDR

While the Pact acknowledges the importance of nature-based solutions, it takes a more precautionary stance towards engineered mCDR technologies, demanding a robust scientific foundation and risk assessment for emerging marine intervention technologies. Research on OAE underscores the importance of leveraging the full potential of mCDR, with studies from CDRmare showing that by combining two or three well-suited OAE methods, Germany alone could sequester more than 15 million metric tonnes of CO₂ per year in its North Sea and Baltic Sea waters. For the Pact to unlock the full sequestration capacity of EU seas and oceans

The EU Ocean Pact signals movement in the right direction for research and innovation in developing and deploying mCDR. The Pact’s strong focus on marine knowledge, observation, and data accessibility is vital for mapping blue carbon habitats and researching their sequestration potential. The increased focus on research and data has the potential to complement the Carbon Removal and Carbon Farming Certification Framework (CRCF) methodologies as they are developed, which require sound data and fit-for-purpose MRV.