Merk, Christine, Grunau, Jonas, Riekhof, Marie-Catherine and Rickels, Wilfried (2022) The need for local governance of global commons: the example of blue carbon ecosystems. . Kiel Working Paper, 2201 . Kiel Institute for the World Economy, Kiel, Germany, 19 pp.

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Abstract

To limit global warming to 1.5°C, vast amounts of CO2 will have to be removed from the atmos‐
phere via Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR). Enhancing the CO2 sequestration of ecosystems will
require not just one approach but a portfolio of CDR options, including so‐called nature‐based
approaches alongside CDR options that are perceived as more technical. Creating a CDR “supply
curve” would however imply that all carbon removals are considered to be perfect substitutes.
The various co‐benefits of nature‐based CDR approaches militate against this. We discuss this
aspect of nature‐based solutions in connection with the enhancement of blue carbon ecosys‐
tems (BCE) such as mangrove or seagrass habitats. Enhancing BCEs can indeed contribute to
CO 2 sequestration, but the value of their carbon storage is low compared to the overall contri‐
bution of their ecosystem services to wealth. Furthermore, their property rights are often un‐
clear, i.e. not comprehensively defined or not enforced. Hence, payment schemes that only
compensate BCE carbon sequestration could create tradeoffs at the expense of other im‐
portant, often local, ecosystem services and might not result in socially optimal outcomes. Ac‐
cordingly, one chance for preserving and restoring BCEs lies in the consideration of all services
in potential compensation schemes for local communities. Also, local contexts, management
structures, and benefit‐sharing rules are crucial factors to be considered when setting up inter‐
national payment schemes to support the use of BCEs and other nature‐ or ecosystem‐based
CDR. However, regarding these options as the only hope of achieving more CDR will very prob‐
ably not bring about the desired outcome, either for climate mitigation or for ecosystem preser‐
vation. Unhalted degradation, in turn, will make matters worse due to the large amounts of
stored carbon that would be released. Hence, countries committed to climate mitigation in line
with the Paris targets should not hide behind vague pledges to enhance natural sinks for re‐
moving atmospheric CO2 but commit to scaling up engineered CDR.

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