The Ankara Center for Crisis and Policy Studies (ANKASAM) presents its interview with Yernar Sailybayev, the Co-Founder and CEO of the Caspian Environmental Consortium, aimed at gaining insights into projects addressing ecosystem restoration and combating climate change around the Caspian Sea, as well as environmental strategies in Central Asia.
1. What is UNESCO’s Ocean Decade project, and how does the Caspian Environmental Consortium contribute to it?
UNESCO’s Ocean Decade is a global initiative aimed at mobilizing scientific research and knowledge to address the challenges facing our oceans.
It seeks to reverse the decline of ocean health and create sustainable opportunities for this vital ecosystem. Caspian Carbon Dioxide Removal project (CaspianCDR) is part of our Caspian Horizons 2027 Programme along with soil bioremediation, biodiversity and education initiatives. In June 2024, UNESCO has endorsed CaspianCDR to become part of the Decade of the Ocean, and was attached to the “Global Ecosystem for Ocean Solutions (GEOS) Program led by OceanVisions.
CaspianCDR has committed to mobilize Nature Based Solutions to address 3 challenges: #3-Sustainable Blue Food, #4-Sustainable Ocean Economy, #5-Ocean-Climate Nexus. As a participant of UN Global Compact we are confident that Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) are effective, long-term, cost-efficient and globally scalable. They are already being delivered, are visible and credible, and can be exponentially scaled-up. NBS can provide over one-third of the cost-effective climate mitigation needed between now and 2030 to stabilize warming to below 2 °C, achieving nature’s mitigation potential of 10-12 gigaton of CO2 per year, or more.
The core task of CaspianCDR is to develop and demonstrate a high quality megaton-scale carbon dioxide removal technology based on the natural microalgae bloom process of the Caspian Sea. The idea of carbon removal using microalgae cultivation belongs to marine CDR pioneer Dr. Raffael Jovine, Founder and Chief Scientist of BrilliantPlanet Ltd., who authored book ‘Light to Life, offering a fresh perspective on the profound influence of photosynthesis on Earth’s evolution.
Inspired by the vision of Dr. Jovine, we have conducted extensive research on the environment of the eastern middle Caspian Sea to share it with international scientific community. Our efforts have been appreciated by Dr. Jovine, who has officially supported the Caspian Horizons 2027 Program by allocating significant resources for the Caspian bioprospecting. This is followed by evaluating the potential to build a pilot site and expand into industrial production scale after 2027. Our academic support began to develop as early as 2023, when Professor Nianzhi Jiao invited us to participate in GlobalONCE, a program of the UNESCO Decade of Oceans. As part of GlobalONCE, we are working to establish a marine research center on the shores of the Caspian Sea to expand international research network.
Education: The future of our programme will depend on current high school and college students. Our core team have a history of supporting students from KazNU.
Recently we welcomed Zeinur Bimukhan, a talented young man from Zhanaozen, an undergraduate at Plymouth University, to the CaspianCDR research team.
He will be expected to participate in BrilliantPlanet workshops in 2024-2025, and research work on the shores of his home region. As the projects develop, we are interested in attracting students from all over the world for Caspian Sea research.
I personally lead the “Photosynthesis project” of a high school student Bella Pak from Shoqan School (Almaty) to study the potential of microalgae Chlorella Sorokiniana.
Finally, we have received a Letter of Support from the BrilliantLabs Foundation of Nova Scotia We will work together to develop their Brilliant Blue Challenge competition for high school students, hold national competitions, find judges, and train academic supervisors.
2. What legal instruments are used globally to combat climate change, and how does your work benefit Central Asian countries in this regard?
Globally, several legal instruments are in place to combat climate change. Here are the most important ones:
- The Paris Agreement: This international treaty, adopted in 2015, sets out a global framework to avoid dangerous climate change by limiting global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius and pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
- The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC): This international environmental treaty adopted in 1992, aims to “stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.”
- The Kyoto Protocol: This international treaty, adopted in 1997, sets binding emission reduction targets for developed countries.
- The Tehran Convention is a regional agreement specific to the Caspian Sea. It focuses on protecting the Caspian Sea environment from pollution and promoting sustainable use of its resources, but it doesn’t directly address climate change on a global scale.
The main condition for the realization of our mission is the development of international academic relations to ensure that the Caspian region is fully represented on the global research landscape. We believe, our work is going to extend far beyond microalgae cultivation to include education, RES, cement decarbonization, seawater desalination, reversing desertification, biodiversity and other nature-based solutions.
3. What is the process for conducting expeditions and sample collection as part of the project? How do these activities contribute to our understanding of the Caspian region?
In July 2023 our team has completed the debut phase of research in the middle eastern Caspian Sea. We sailed 148 nautical miles on the Endeavour catamaran to test a Niskin bottle of our own design. We collected bathometric samples of seawater from different depths and measured its physical and chemical parameters. Bathometric samples were then analyzed in our laboratory to qualitatively assess the biodiversity of Caspian phytoplankton.
In 2024, together with BrilliantPlanet team, we have launched a campaign of bioprospecting local Caspian Sea phytoplankton communities, specifically from the eastern part of the middle Caspian Sea, that have the potential for rapid growth, and both the demineralisation as well as de-acidification of Caspian Sea water, to restore it to its pre-industrial state. The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water with a direct impact on the climate of the entire northern hemisphere. Although the Caspian Sea is exceptionally well-studied, we observe that it is underrepresented at the global environmental data landscape.
Our research will include the study of phytoplankton, the basis of the trophic chain of the eutrophied Caspian Sea. We also plan to collect and publish extensive data on the aquatic, atmospheric and coastal environment of the Caspian Sea by means of autonomous vehicles, research buoys, remote sensing and so on.
