Peatlands cover only 3% of the earth’s land surface but contain an estimated 550Gt carbon – more than all the world’s forest. Nordic Council of Ministers brought attention to the importance of including restoration and rewetting of peatlands in a post-2020 climate agreement at a side event in the Nordic Pavilion at COP21.
Peatlands have an outstanding ability to capture CO2 and have been described as the most space-effective stocks of organic carbon on the planet. Drainage of wetland areas, however, results in substantial emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases. 15% of the world’s wetlands, or a mere 0.4% of the earth’s total land area, have been degraded. Nevertheless, annual emissions from drained peatlands are more than 2Gt, equivalent to 5% of all anthropologic carbon emissions.
- Peatland areas act as highly effective carbon sinks and hold more carbon than the world’s entire forest biomass, said Lars Dinesen at the side event, Reducing GHG emissions by securing, restoring and rewetting peatland areas, that took place at the Nordic Pavilion in Paris at the COP21.