2. Governance in Practice
For any framework to be successfully implemented – – suggested principles and practices must reflect the reality of the climate crisis, with an eye towards responsibly progressing carbon removal approaches that demonstrate measurable impact from early-stage research to a climatically relevant scale. Put differently, effective frameworks must be designed to enable positive action for activities that can meaningfully contribute to our collective climate goals.
Running Tide’s governance framework is designed to be applicable from initial research up to scaled operations, and comprehensive of the environmental, ecological, and social implications of our activities. The principles within this framework, detailed below, have been developed to ensure they are actionable and enforceable from the start.
Built on the foundation of best available science, these principles are broken down into seven sub-categories of action, detailed below. More details on our current carbon removal system design (referenced throughout) can be found here.
Failure to adhere to poses a number of risks - including the ability for our carbon removal work to have its intended positive effect.
Best Available Science
The foundation of our governance approach is the concept of “best available science,” an that ensures an activity evolves to match the best current available understanding of Earth systems.
Conventionally accepted sources of scientific information are understood to be constantly evolving. Decisions regarding the management of natural resources and interventions in nature must be made utilizing the best information available, both to enhance collective understanding and avoid unnecessary risks. Building around best available science also activates a knowledge “flywheel”, encouraging novel research and data sharing that moves collective knowledge forward and begets additional research. As knowledge increases, uncertainty around the impact of a potential intervention is reduced through action, the activity is adapted, and the approach is updated as needed.
In line with the scientific method, best available science emerges not from any single source, but from a number of independent processes that include a statement of objectives, a clear conceptual framework, rigorous analysis, sound logic, and documentation of methods, results, and summaries that have been subjected to . Such processes have been generally accepted and well-established across virtually all fields of science.
This concept is applied to all aspects of Running Tide’s work, whether in the laboratory setting or the open ocean, and at all stages from early research to climatically-relevant scales.
Governance Principles
The key categories for Running Tide’s Governance Principles are outlined below, with specific examples of how we demonstrate these principles in our research, system design, deployments, and other areas of our work. A summary table of our principles is provided as an appendix at the end of this document.
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