Underwater CO2 storage is a pipe dream, let's build a low-carbon economy instead

Just a few days ago, France hosted UNOC, the United Nations Conference on Oceans, in Nice. Emmanuel Macron presented himself as a champion of the protection of the oceans, the seabed, and their subsoil. But barely had the spotlight been turned off, he was already encouraging the government and parliamentarians, with the support of lobbying firms, to bury industrial pollution under the sea—the very same pollution that fuels global warming and accelerates ocean acidification .

In the name of combating global warming, the government will defend a bill in the National Assembly on Tuesday, June 17, aimed at authorizing the export of liquefied CO2 for burial in underwater geological faults or former hydrocarbon reservoirs. This export would require ratifying an amendment to Article 6 of the London Protocol on Marine Pollution, an international agreement designed to prevent marine pollution from the dumping of waste and other materials.

Behind this techno-solutionist showcase hides a real way around the problem: that