Coastlines of the world help battle climate change

Excellent study material for all civil services aspirants - begin learning - Kar ke dikhayenge!

  Coastlines of the world help battle climate change

---

Read more on - Polity | Economy | Schemes | S&T | Environment

---

• The story: Researchers off the southern coast of Australia tried an experiment: they threw 50,000 bags of sand into the ocean. Their goal is to restore about two dozen acres of seagrass on the ocean floor that will suck carbon out of the atmosphere. The move is part of an intensified push to slow warming temperatures on the planet by not only preserving or restoring trees, which also absorb carbon, but also by mending habitats along the world’s coastlines.
• Blue carbon areas: These “blue carbon" areas, which aside from meadows of underwater seagrass also include mangroves and tidal marshes, often store more carbon per acre than forests and hold it for a long time. From Australia to Colombia to the U.S., these coastal zones are becoming a priority for conservation and restoration as researchers and policy makers start to appreciate their potential to take carbon out of the atmosphere. Carbon released into the atmosphere from man-made sources such as fossil-fuel-burning power plants and cars is contributing to a warming climate, which is why researchers are seeking ways to capture and store it.
• Forest and the waters: Like forests on land, such coastal habitats store carbon in the plants themselves. But areas such as the seagrass field that Australian researchers are aiming to regrow store even more carbon in the soil below. That is because the ground in coastlands that contain seagrass, mangroves and marshes is routinely covered with water and sediment, lowering oxygen levels. This slows decomposition, which normally releases carbon back into the atmosphere.
• Worldwide scene: There are blue-carbon ecosystems around the world, but Australia is a hot spot for them—it has as much as 32% of the world’s seagrass, mangroves and tidal marshes. That has prompted the Australian government to take a leading role in investigating the ability of coastal ecosystems to store carbon. There is growing interest in revitalizing these areas because it is a natural solution that can slow climate change. New technology, such as machines that take carbon out of the air, is expensive on a large scale.

1. Scientists in the US have restored a different type of seagrass on the east coast of Virginia near the Chesapeake Bay, and some lawmakers have pushed to investigate further blue-carbon opportunities. In Pakistan, local authorities and private investors are seeking to replant more than 800 square miles of mangroves.
2. In Colombia, a project to protect mangroves and marshes was approved by Verra, a U.S.-based nonprofit that oversees a carbon-credit program, as its first blue-carbon conservation project. That means the project can issue Verra-certified carbon credits, which represent carbon that has been reduced or removed from the atmosphere. Companies can finance a project to earn carbon credits or buy the credits as a way to offset their own emissions.

• Australian government's commitment: It said that it would invest more than $20 million in blue-carbon projects, part of a roughly $75 million initiative aimed at protecting the ocean, though center-right Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been criticized by environmental groups for not moving fast enough to reduce emissions. Australian regulators are also working with scientists to develop their own carbon credit specifically for blue-carbon initiatives.
• Summary: Storing carbon in coastal areas alone isn’t expected to fully mitigate climate change. Blue-carbon ecosystems are much smaller in extent than land-based forests, so preserving and restoring coastal habitats would make up only a small amount of the carbon reduction needed to meet climate targets.  Still, failing to protect existing seagrass, mangroves and tidal marshes could allow climate change to accelerate.

Read more on - Polity | Economy | Schemes | S&T | Environment

Join UPSC Self Prep course | Online Course (PT Gurukul)  | Covid Special Course | Join PT courses

* Content sourced from free internet sources (publications, PIB site, international sites, etc.). Take your own subscriptions. Copyrights acknowledged.