The race to fight climate change is moving underwater—and Fujitsu is betting big on the power of “digital oceans” to make blue carbon a serious player in global decarbonization.
Breakthrough in blue carbon
Fujitsu Limited, headquartered in Kawasaki, Japan, has unveiled a new technology that can quickly and precisely measure blue carbon—the carbon absorbed and stored by coastal and marine ecosystems such as seaweed and seagrass beds. This solution is designed to support the recovery and protection of these vital underwater habitats while speeding up the certification of blue carbon credits, which are becoming an important tool for both climate action and marine conservation.
What makes this especially exciting is that the system dramatically reduces the time needed for measurement and analysis while maintaining high accuracy, making blue carbon projects more practical and scalable than before. But here’s where it gets controversial: if ocean ecosystems start to be valued primarily in terms of tradable credits, will that change how governments and companies prioritize conservation?
Fast, accurate, and expert-free
The newly developed system handles everything from data collection and measurement to ecosystem recognition, blue carbon quantification, and support for restoration and conservation activities, all without requiring on-site specialists. In validation tests, it achieved more than 85% accuracy when identifying and measuring seagrass and seaweed areas larger than 1 hectare, while doing the work in about 1/100th of the time previously needed—roughly 30 minutes per hectare.
This kind of speed could completely change how often and how widely blue carbon projects are monitored, making it easier to update data, refine restoration plans, and maintain certification. And this is the part most people miss: when measurement becomes this fast and accessible, the bottleneck in climate projects shifts from “Can we measure it?” to “How responsibly will we use that data?”
Proven through J-Blue Credit®
The effectiveness of the technology is not just theoretical—it has already been recognized in a real certification process. Using the system, Fujitsu achieved J-Blue Credit® certification (Japan’s blue carbon credit scheme) with an impressive 95% accreditation rate, demonstrating that the data quality and methodology meet stringent standards.
This high accreditation rate signals that regulators and certification bodies see the outputs as trustworthy enough to underpin financial instruments such as carbon credits. A question that may spark debate is whether future policy frameworks will lean heavily on such AI-driven systems, potentially sidelining traditional field surveys and human expertise.
Real-world deployment and partnerships
Fujitsu plans to deploy this technology in actual marine environments in collaboration with local governments and private-sector partners across Japan. The focus includes supporting seagrass bed restoration, ongoing conservation activities, and J-Blue Credit® certification, with the broader goal of achieving “nature-positive” outcomes—restoring ecosystems rather than merely slowing degradation.
Beyond blue carbon, Fujitsu also intends to extend the technology to other marine applications, including inspections of offshore wind power infrastructure and environmental impact studies before and after marine construction projects. This expansion hints at a future in which ocean digital twins become standard tools not only for conservation but also for managing the environmental footprint of the blue economy.
Balancing ecology and economics by 2027
By advancing ocean digital twin technology and building alliances with companies, municipalities, and organizations focused on carbon neutrality and biodiversity, Fujitsu aims to create business models that reconcile environmental protection with economic growth by around 2027. The vision is to make it profitable—or at least financially viable—for stakeholders to invest in healthy marine ecosystems, rather than treating them as externalities or afterthoughts.
However, this raises a potentially divisive question: when nature becomes deeply embedded in business models and financial products, does that strengthen long-term protection—or risk turning ecosystems into assets that are protected only as long as they remain profitable?
Three core technologies
Fujitsu’s solution centers on three main technological pillars that together form the backbone of its ocean digital twin approach.
1. Underwater drone autonomous navigation
- Autonomous navigation technology allows underwater drones to stably and efficiently collect data beneath the surface, even when currents are strong or conditions are challenging.
- The drones can follow a predetermined measurement path while keeping their positional error within approximately plus or minus 50 cm, enabling thorough data acquisition even around complex areas such as reefs.
In practical terms, this means drones can map seagrass beds and other underwater features in a consistent, repeatable way, reducing gaps and overlaps in the collected data. For beginners, you can think of it like a self-driving car—but underwater and tuned to trace precise survey lines.
2. Seagrass bed quantification
- A combination of marine ecology knowledge and AI makes it possible to identify seaweed and seagrass species and estimate their coverage (density) with over 85% precision, even when the water is murky.
- Using a mathematical model, the system then calculates how much blue carbon is being absorbed based on the species present and how densely they cover the seabed.
- The technology is designed to be applicable across roughly 80% of Japan’s marine areas, making it broadly useful rather than limited to a few test sites.
For someone unfamiliar with ecology, this effectively turns raw image and sensor data into a map that says, “Here is this type of seagrass, covering this much area, absorbing approximately this amount of carbon.” But here’s where it could be contentious: should carbon accounting rely heavily on models and AI estimates, or should stricter ground-truthing always be required before issuing credits?
3. Seagrass bed creation simulation
- By combining marine environmental science with AI, Fujitsu has built a simulation tool that models how seagrass beds might grow or change under various scenarios.
- The system can assess restoration and conservation strategies in advance by predicting how human activities—such as changes in seawater temperature or the installation of artificial structures—might affect seagrass beds and their interactions with surrounding ecosystems.
This simulation capability allows planners to test “what if” scenarios before implementing interventions, reducing the risk of unintentional harm. For example, they can explore how a new offshore wind project might alter local conditions and what measures would be needed to maintain or enhance seagrass health.
From concept to end-to-end system
Using these core technologies, Fujitsu has constructed an end-to-end system for supporting blue carbon credit acquisition—from data collection and analysis all the way through to certification support. The “ocean digital twin” concept underpins this system, effectively creating a virtual representation of marine environments that reflects real-world conditions and can be updated over time.
Illustrative figures (referred to as Figure 1, Figure 2, and Figure 3 in the original materials) present the digital twin concept, impact pre-verification through simulation, and the complete system flow, respectively. While the images are not included here, the key idea is that every step—from underwater survey to simulation to reporting—is integrated into a single workflow.
Demonstrated in the Uwa Sea
Fujitsu has already put this system to work in a concrete project in the Uwa Sea, in cooperation with:
- The Uwakai Institute for Environmental Biology
- The Yoshida Branch of the Ehime Prefectural Fisheries Cooperative Association
- Uwajima City
Together, these partners measured and quantified blue carbon in a target area of 1.8 hectares. Using the resulting data, they applied for blue carbon credit certification and issuance from the Japan Blue Economy Technology Research Association.
On October 17, 2025, the project was granted J-Blue Credit® certification with a top-tier accreditation rate of 95% for the applied area, confirming that the methodology is robust enough for real-world credit issuance. And this is the part most people miss: projects like this not only showcase tech, they may also shape how future rules and standards for blue carbon accounting are written.
Public showcase at Techno-Ocean 2025
Fujitsu plans to present its ocean digital twin initiatives, including this comprehensive system, at Techno-Ocean 2025. The event will take place at the Kobe International Exhibition Hall in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan, from November 27 to November 29, 2025, giving industry stakeholders, researchers, and policymakers a chance to see the technology and discussions around it firsthand.
Such events often become testing grounds for public perception: will attendees view this as a breakthrough for transparent climate action, or as one more layer of complexity in an already crowded carbon market landscape?
Context and closing details
J-Blue Credit® is Japan’s certification framework specifically designed for blue carbon credits, providing standards and procedures for verifying carbon absorption in marine and coastal ecosystems. The Fujitsu initiative aligns with the company’s broader commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly those related to climate action, life below water, and partnerships for the goals.
Standard corporate information accompanies the announcement: Fujitsu notes that company and product names mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners, and that the details provided are accurate at the time of publication but may change without notice. The announcement is dated November 26, 2025, from Kawasaki, Japan, under the name of Fujitsu Limited.
Your turn: what do you think?
Here’s where you come in:
- Do you see AI-driven ocean digital twins as a powerful tool to protect marine ecosystems—or as a risky move that could over-financialize nature?
- Should carbon credits based on complex models and simulations be treated the same as those derived from traditional on-the-ground measurements?
- And if companies can profit from blue carbon projects, does that accelerate conservation—or risk prioritizing the most profitable ecosystems over the most fragile ones?
Share whether you agree, disagree, or see hidden challenges in this approach to blue carbon in the comments—this is exactly the kind of debate that will shape the future of climate and ocean policy.
