Bertram, Christine, Quaas, Martin , Reusch, Thorsten B. H. , Vafeidis, Athanasios T. , Wolff, Claudia and Rickels, Wilfried (2021) The blue carbon wealth of nations. Nature Climate Change, 11 . pp. 704-709. DOI 10.1038/s41558-021-01089-4.

Preview

Text (includes correction) s41558-021-01089-4.pdf - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0. Download (4MB) | Preview

Abstract

Carbon sequestration and storage in mangroves, salt marshes and seagrass meadows is an essential coastal ‘blue carbon’ ecosystem service for climate change mitigation. Here we offer a comprehensive, global and spatially explicit economic assessment of carbon sequestration and storage in three coastal ecosystem types at the global and national levels. We propose a new approach based on the country-specific social cost of carbon that allows us to calculate each country’s contribution to, and redistribution of, global blue carbon wealth. Globally, coastal ecosystems contribute a mean ± s.e.m. of US$190.67 ± 30 bn yr−1 to blue carbon wealth. The three countries generating the largest positive net blue wealth contribution for other countries are Australia, Indonesia and Cuba, with Australia alone generating a positive net benefit of US$22.8 ± 3.8 bn yr−1 for the rest of the world through coastal ecosystem carbon sequestration and storage in its territory.

Actions (login required)

View Item