From Air to Sea: the Canadian Senate takes on marine CDR - with Senator Colin Deacon

In this episode of The CDR Policy Scoop, Eve Tamme is joined by Canadian Senator Colin Deacon from Nova Scotia. Senator Deacon is a former entrepreneur, who has been a driving force behind what may be the most comprehensive government study on marine carbon dioxide removal undertaken by any national legislature to date.

The conversation centres on the landmark report published by Canada's Standing Senate Committee on Fisheries and Oceans in February 2026, which examined marine CDR - particularly ocean alkalinity enhancement - and put forward nine clear, actionable recommendations. Senator Deacon explains what drew the committee to the topic, the unexpected complexity of navigating four overlapping federal regulators, and why agile regulation, not the science, emerged as the single biggest barrier to scaling the sector.

Eve and Senator Deacon explore the significance of Canada asserting sovereign jurisdiction over land-based ocean alkalinity enhancement projects, the case for creating a regulatory sandbox that brings innovators and regulators together, and the importance of access to compliance carbon markets for removal credits. Senator Deacon reflects on Canada's strong foundation in this space, from two X Prize winners and the Ocean Frontier Institute at Dalhousie University, to a Prime Minister in Mark Carney with deep personal understanding of carbon markets and end-to-end credit integrity.

The episode also touches on the role of social license, why site visits proved the most powerful tool for building political buy-in among new committee members, and why Senator Deacon insists that scaling and studying marine CDR must happen in parallel, not sequentially. The discussion closes with a forward-looking call: the world will not reach net zero without carbon removal, and the time to build the markets, the regulation, and the trust to support it is now.

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