Blue Carbon refers to the role of mangroves, tidal marshes, and seagrass meadows which - when maintained or restored – play a significant role in sequestering atmospheric carbon dioxide. They are also critical habitat for ensuring coastal resilience to extreme events and sea level rise.

Unfortunately, up to 800,000 hectares of Blue Carbon ecosystems are destroyed each year, approximately 1.5% of global coverage. When degraded or destroyed, the services provided by Blue Carbon ecosystems are lost and they can become a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions, with thousands of years of sequestered carbon released.

For the ocean business community and the finance community, maintaining or restoring Blue Carbon ecosystems create valuable opportunities for carbon offset credits and innovative investment in both carbon sequestration and coastal resilience.

The SOS 2017 session on “Blue Carbon: Implementing Industry CO2 Offsets in Coastal and Marine Ecosystems” will look at:

• What is Blue Carbon and how does it relate to the ocean business community? 

• What is the potential role and incentives or benefits for ocean industries in the maintenance or restoration of coastal and marine ecosystems for their Blue Carbon value? 

• What is the state of the art in Blue Carbon for CO2 offsets and what is needed to move this forward?

For more on the conference, click here.

Representatives from ocean industries, the investment community and Blue Carbon experts and practitioners are invited to contact the WOC to speak at this SOS 2017 session - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..