Announcing Running Tide’s Governance Principles for Responsible Climate Intervention

As a leading carbon removal practitioner, Running Tide understands firsthand the importance of clear guidelines that inform decision-making and action when interacting with nature. 

The need for carbon removal at a massive scale is required to avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis, and is well documented, consensus science. Any framework that seeks to effectively govern this work must reflect the reality of climate change, with an eye towards responsibly progressing carbon removal approaches that demonstrate measurable impact from early-stage research towards the eventual scale required. Frameworks cannot successfully advance the solutions our planet needs if they are built solely to deter bad actors. 

Governance frameworks must be designed to enable positive action for activities that can meaningfully contribute to our collective climate goals. Ultimately, the success of the carbon removal industry will be contingent on building and maintaining public trust, and providing clear frameworks – from the laboratory setting, to conducting responsible research projects, to eventual scale – can go a long way towards building that foundation. 

Within that context, Running Tide is proud to share our Governance Principles for Responsible Climate Intervention, which are structured to ensure that our work has the intended positive impact on ocean health and the communities in which we operate. This document is designed to be applicable from initial research up to scaled operations, and to be inclusive of the environmental, ecological, and social implications of our activities. The principles have been developed to ensure they are actionable and enforceable from the start. 

In addition, Running Tide has prepared a Response to the American Geophysical Union’s (AGU) Ethical Framework for Climate Intervention Draft, one of several industry-wide codes of conduct and frameworks in development. Running Tide has participated and provided feedback throughout the development of this framework, and our response is intended to provide additional feedback on the proposed draft principles from AGU, and to illustrate how a carbon removal practitioner can demonstrate alignment with the suggested principles. It is also intended to highlight areas where additional specificity or changes may be needed to ensure that the AGU draft principles are actionable and can be effectively integrated into the decision-making processes of leaders in the space. 

Both of these documents, as well as a summary table of our Governance Principles, can be found in the links above and below. 

Running Tide is committed to doing this work and helping to build the technology and infrastructure that helps carbon removal solutions succeed – but we can’t do it alone. We are constantly seeking new avenues to share and improve our methods and impact, and to build our capacity to heal the ocean. We are eager to work with partners and collaborators from every sector.

We welcome and encourage all feedback on this governance framework – please feel free to get in touch at contact@runningtide.com.

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Read Running Tide’s Governance Principles for Responsible Climate Intervention HERE.

Read Running Tide’s Response to the American Geophysical Union’s Ethical Framework for Climate Intervention Draft HERE. 

Read the Summary of Running Tide’s Governance Principles HERE.