"A critical lack of understanding of how the ocean absorbs and stores carbon" (Unesco report)

"The ocean is storing around 25% of global CO₂ emissions. But major blind spots remain in our scientific understanding of this process, with variations large enough to considerably affect how governments plan climate mitigation and adaptation strategies", exposes a new report coordinated by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of Unesco, released on 23/02/2026.

With 72 authors and 13 reviewers from 23 countries, the ‘Integrated Ocean Carbon Research’ report finds that "scientific models differ widely in estimating how much carbon the ocean absorbs, with discrepancies of 10-20% globally and even greater in certain regions".

"All of this indicates that we are making climate decisions without knowing how the ocean will behave", the authors added. "If the ocean absorbs less carbon in the future, more CO₂ will remain in the atmosphere and accelerate global warming. This would have a direct impact on future emissions targets and national climate plans".

Beyond identifying research needs, the report also lays out a "coordinated roadmap to strengthen monitoring, modelling and…