Blue Carbon: Valuing CO2 mitigation by coastal marine systems
By Conservation International & IUCN
Reporting from IISD (ENBOTS) - by Mark Cheng, a World Ocean Network participant at COP16 (more info click here)
The event discussed the potential for Marine ecosystems to contribute to climate change mitigation. Ms Emily Pidgeon from Conservation International mentioned how coastal management is essential for managing climate change and provides an effective, low cost mitigation tool. She estimated that US$25 billion per year provided for the coastal ecosystem services could form the basis for developing a REDD-like incentive agreement for coastal ecosystems and said sea grasses, salt marshes, and mangroves store significant amounts of carbon in their sediments.
Dorothée Herr from IUCN emphasized that there are opportunities to link coastal wetland management to climate mitigation policy. She said REDD+ can apply to mangrove forests and that SBSTA’s guidance on degradation drivers, methodologies, and monitoring, reporting and verification standards is applicable to these ecosystems. She proposed developing a REDD-like financial mechanism for soil-based carbon storage and sequestration that can synergize with REDD+. She also suggested: looking for opportunities in Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMA); including coastal management under Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF), if accounting rules are developed; and increasing support for coastal projects under the CDM.
Stephen Crooks from ESA PWA Consulting noted that more research is needed to fully understand wetland biochemistry, especially on the amount of carbon absorbed and released into the water versus into the air.
Roger Ullman, Linden Trust for Conservation, presented some preliminary research on the economic valuation of wetlands and blue carbon schemes. He said, assuming a price of carbon of $US20 per tonne and a discount rate of 10%, mangroves provide US$15-25,000 per hectare compared to approximately US$8,000 for tropical forests. He said this implies that wetland carbon credit schemes could be more valuable than shrimp farming.
On the side note, IUCN proposed several recommendations for COP16:
IUCN calls for rapid and robust action by States, communities and individuals to take all possible steps to cut their emissions of all greenhouse gases immediately to ensure that the target agreed at Copenhagen, i.e. to limit the rise in global average temperature to 2ºC above pre-industrial levels can be achieved. This will require stronger quantified emission reduction targets by developed countries and enhanced nationally appropriate mitigation action by those developing countries with emerging economies.
- Find more information: click here.
