16 Green Transition

ANDREAS G. STUETZ / IDEASCANNER

How can we organically sequester a gigaton of CO2? By capturing, collecting, and storing carbon, seagrass makes a massive contribution to combating climate change. According to the Helmholtz Climate Initiative, it stores carbon in the soil 30 to 50 times faster than forests on land. Seagrass meadows in the German Baltic Sea have stored about 8.14 million tons of CO2 emissions over an area of 285 square kilometers. Fungal diseases and coastal shipping have already severely depleted seagrass beds.IDEASCANNER uses AI to accelerate digital transformation and sustainable innovation by 10x. In our research, we found that seagrass reintroduction is currently being done painstakingly in small-scale projects by dive schools. Our goal is to work with partners to rapidly scale the recolonization of suitable shallow coastal seagrass beds using underwater robots. In this way, we aim to organically sequester at least one gigaton of CO2 from the atmosphere over the next 10 years.

INNOVATIVE SME