Delegates at the recent UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties COP26 in Glasgow would have found it hard to ignore Scotland’s stunning scenery: dense woodlands, dark lochs and sweeping mountain ranges. But it was the peatlands that perhaps captured their attention the most, not only for their iconic beauty but for the role they can play in combatting climate change.
While peatlands take up only around 3 per cent of global land area, they store over 33 per cent of the world’s soil carbon, more than the carbon stored in all other vegetation combined.
Peatlands, which are found in almost every country, are wetlands also known as bogs, fens, bofedales and swamp forests. They are home to a diverse amount of wildlife, flora and fauna and provide natural flood mitigation and water storage and filtration.
For example, in the UK and Ireland alone, peatlands supply 85 per cent of all drinking water.
AT COP26, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) coordinated the Peatland Pavilion, where technology, best practice and experiences were shared. Peatlands were featured prominently as a Nature-based Solution, with close to 50 events live-streamed on the virtual platform.
The Peatland Pavilion was important, as recent decades have seen peatlands damaged and degraded by drainage, agricultural conversion, burning and mining for fuel, the result of undervaluation of its ecosystem and economic contributions.
“If we are going to keep on track with the Paris Agreement goals, peatlands need to be protected and restored globally,” said Dianna Kopansky, UNEP Global Peatlands Coordinator.
“The Peatland Pavilion at COP26 was a good start, but urgent action needs to be taken now – to invest in peatlands protection and restoration – so that peatlands become a tool to fight climate change, rather than a contributor to it.”
When peatlands are degraded they become a contributor to emissions. Protecting and restoring peatlands can reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by 800 million metric tonnes per year – equivalent to Germany’s annual emissions – according to the new report Economics of Peatlands Conservation, Restoration, and Sustainable Management”, released at COP26 by UNEP and the Global Peatlands Initiative (GPI).
Restoring peatlands can be complex and challenging, however: “We are facing a capacity challenge,” said Professor Andrew Millar, the Scottish Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser for Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture. “That applies to the entire system, to the science, to the training of drivers who need to drive the diggers that will go into the peat to start restoring it. There’s also the challenge of finding out which peatlands are emitting the most and figuring out the emissions reductions you get from each type of peat.”
Experts say there also needs to be buy-in from landowners. “We need to engage with farmers and landowners,” said Guðmundur Ingi Guðbrandsson, Iceland’s Minister for the Environment and Natural Resources, at the Dialogues Towards a European Peatlands Initiative at the Peatland Pavilion. “Landowners have rights, and many are happy to take part once they understand the value of restoration. And we have to do this. We declared war on peatlands, and now half of Iceland’s peatland area has been drained.”
Indonesia has also has been battling the impacts of drained peatlands, including peatland fires and huge emissions. Alue Dohong, Indonesia’s Vice-Minister of Environment and Forestry, asked for support: “Peatlands need to be protected. Degraded peatlands can be repaired by recovering the hydrology and maintaining the water balance at the hydrological peatland unit.”
Here are some of the key achievements around peatlands at COP26:
Global Peatlands Assessment and Mapping
The GPI launched a Global Peatlands Assessment, which aims to fill the knowledge and research gaps on peatland distribution, status and trends, bringing the best available science together in order to get a global overview of the world’s peatlands.
Additionally, the Global Peatland Map 2.0 was launched to improve the base knowledge on the location and extent of peatlands worldwide, supporting countries with enhanced mapping efforts to inform decisions, influence policy, and guide action for the conservation, restoration and sustainable management of peatlands.
Countries promoting peatlands
- The Scottish Government has committed to investing over £250m to restore 250,000 hectares of degraded peatland by 2030. Furthermore, an official Memorandum of Understanding was signed between Scotland and Chile to support collaboration for the sustainable management of wetlands, including the conservation of peatlands. “The GPI constitute a key international partnership to save peatlands as the world largest terrestrial organic carbon stock, which is our same goal here by signing this memorandum of understanding,” said Carolina Schmidt Zaldivar, Chile’s Minister of the Environment.
- Both the German and English governments showcased their recently published national peatlands strategies.
- COP26 saw individual countries strengthen their climate commitments, with Chile, Peru, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo including peatlands on their Nationally Determined Contributions for the first time, as part of their long-term strategies to combat climate change.
- One of the most ambitious peatlands restoration projects in Europe, the Great North Bog, was announced. The project will see more than 7,000 sq km of degraded bog across northern England restored in an attempt to quell the more than 3.7 million tonnes of carbon released annually.
The Global Peatlands Initiative is an international partnership launched at the UNFCCC COP in Marrakech, Morocco, in late 2016. Led by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), its goal is to protect and conserve peatlands as the world’s largest terrestrial organic carbon stock and to prevent it being emitted into the atmosphere. Visit www.globalpeatlands.org/ to learn more about peatlands contributing to climate action.
