Blue carbon: the role of healthy oceans in binding carbon

While the reduction of emissions are currently at the center of climate change discussions, the critical role of the oceans and ocean ecosystems has been vastly overlooked. The objective of this report is to highlight the critical role of the ocean and ocean ecosystems in maintaining the earth's climate and to assist policy makers to mainstream an ocean agenda into national and international climate change initiatives.

The paper argues that maintaining or improving the ability of oceans to absorb and bury CO2 is a crucial aspect of climate change mitigation. It underlines the vital contributions of the oceans atmospheric CO2 levels through sequestration and also through reducing the marine and coastal ecosystem degradation.
 
The main findings of the paper are:

• oceans play a significant role in the global carbon cycle. Not only do they represent the largest long-term sink for carbon but they also store and redistribute CO2
• if managed properly, blue carbon sinks have the potential to play an important role in mitigating climate change
• if more actions are not taken to sustain ocean ecosystems, most may be lost within two decades
• much of the degradation of these ecosystems comes from poor watershed management, poor coastal development practices, and poor water waste management
• the protection and restoration of coastal zones through coordinated integrated management, would have significant and multiple benefits for health, labour productivity, and food security of communities in these areas.

The paper concludes that mitigation and emission reduction should not be seen as a cost, but rather as an investment.