From publication to action: Connecting science, policy, and public attention for ocean-related climate mitigation
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Ocean-related options (OROs), including marine renewable energy and ocean-based carbon dioxide removal, are emerging as key components of global climate mitigation portfolios. These options vary widely in technological maturity and risk acceptability, yet as scientific literature exponentially increases, ensuring that actions are informed by the current state of evidence is a major challenge. Using causal inference across diverse datasets from scientific publications, policy and legislation documents, social media posts, and deployment metrics, we identify scientific publications and social media attention as direct drivers of ORO actions. However, when social media attention surpasses research, actions may advance ahead of science. This underscores the need for rapid and robust policy and legislation. Globally, coordinated and well-designed policy with decisive implementation is key for catalysing step-changes in ORO progress. Together, our findings reveal the dynamic relationships linking science to action and highlight pathways for the effective and responsible scaling of OROs in the coming decades.
