Blue Carbon: The Potential of Coastal & Oceanic Climate Action

BY Realty Plus

The oceans and coasts are the Earth’s climate regulators. Covering 72 percent of the planet’s surface, they have absorbed around 40 percent of carbon emitted by human activities since 1850. Coastal ecosystems such as mangroves, tidal marshes, and seagrass meadows act as deep carbon reservoirs, while marine ecosystems absorb and sequester greenhouse gases (GHG) through the carbon cycle.

 The bad news for humankind is that both oceans and coasts are under pressure, amid atmospheric and marine warming, habitat destruction, pollution, and the impacts of overfishing and industrial activity. These destructive factors are undermining the role of oceanic systems in slowing climate change.

Humankind’s impact on coastal and offshore ecosystems is a double-edged sword. While we are responsible for significant destruction, we also have agency over potential outcomes. Through our efforts, we can avert damage to or restore the oceans. This would increase carbon absorption from the atmosphere and move the world toward the net-zero emissions envisaged by the Paris Agreement on climate change. 

Companies that are seeking to offset their carbon emissions through voluntary and compliance carbon markets, and in particular those whose activities are connected to the oceans, such as the fishing industry, would have a key role to play in facilitating this process.

One of the key tools to tackle climate change is the carbon markets, through which organizations can trade emissions allowances to achieve reduction targets. The vast majority of funding provided by carbon markets is allocated to so-called nature-based solutions (NBS). 

These are focused on the protection, restoration, and management of natural and modified ecosystems. On land, the most recognizable NBS is planting of trees to restore forests. In this report, we analyze the potential of so-called blue carbon NBS, which are designed to protect or enhance ecosystems on coasts and in the oceans. We consider three categories of blue carbon solutions, which we rank according to their scientific and economic maturity:

Established solutions: We consider blue carbon NBS to be “established” when they meet minimum standards of scientific understanding and implementation potential. These relatively mature solutions are focused on the protection and restoration of mangroves, salt marshes, and seagrass meadows. They are more widely understood than many less mature blue carbon solutions, offer scientifically verifiable levels of carbon abatement, and are amenable to funding through the carbon markets.

Emerging solutions: Emerging solutions are those for which there is an existing body of peer-reviewed research to quantify CO2 abatement potential, but for which further research is required to align with funding frameworks such as the Core Carbon Principles, published by the Taskforce on Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets. The emerging category includes the protection and restoration of seaweed forests, extension of seaweed forests, and strategies to reduce bottom trawling.

Nascent solutions: The nascent and potentially largest blue carbon NBS category focuses on the protection or restoration of marine fauna populations. This category is the most challenging in terms of understanding impacts, establishing permanence (preventing leakage), and proving the vital concept of additionality—meaning the benefit would not have accrued anyway, for example, for economic or legal reasons. Fish themselves are not considered a form of carbon sequestration, but they contribute to the effectiveness of the biological carbon pump and therefore to exportation of carbon into the deep sea. Also in the nascent category are reef-based solutions. Healthy reefs may contribute to carbon sequestration through their support for a range of organisms and shell fish. Due to the scientific challenges around quantification, the nascent category is not yet financeable through carbon markets.

Tags : Blue Carbon The Potential Coastal & Oceanic Climate Action McKinsey Report Earth’s climate regulators greenhouse gases (GHG)