NEWS BRIEFING: Aussie blue coasts our secret weapon against climate change

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2019-10-01 19:00

Australia; International; QLD; WA

Mangrove_-_Cooktown,_Queensland,_Australia By Rob and Stephanie Levy from Townsville, Australia - My favourite mangrove, CC BY 2.0

Australia's coasts are a global carbon storage hotspot that could help us fight climate change, and restoring them could create more than $16 million dollars-a-year-worth of carbon credits, according to new Australian research. The study accurately measured the amount of carbon being absorbed and emitted by seagrass, mangroves and salt marshes - collectively known as blue carbon. It showed these ecosystems already lock away 20 million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year - the equivalent of taking 4 million cars off the road. According to the study, restoring just 10 per cent of our lost blue carbon ecosystems would reduce our annual land use emissions by 6-8 per cate ment and creore than $16 million-per-year in carbon credits. Come to this briefing to hear the researchers talk about the potential of Australia's blue carbon.

Media release

From: Australian Science Media Centre

Australia's coasts are a global carbon storage hotspot that could help us fight climate change, and restoring them could create more than $16 million dollars-a-year-worth of carbon credits, according to new Australian research. The study accurately measured the amount of carbon being absorbed and emitted by seagrass, mangroves and salt marshes - collectively known as blue carbon. It showed these ecosystems already lock away 20 million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year -  the equivalent of taking 4 million cars off the road.

According to the study, restoring just 10 per cent of our lost  blue carbon ecosystems would reduce our annual land use emissions by 6-8 per cent and create more than $16 million-per-year in carbon credits.

So could seagrass save us?  Which states stand to benefit most?  Come to this briefing to hear the researchers talk about the potential of Australia's blue carbon.

Speakers:

Dr Oscar Serrano is a Post Doctoral Research Fellow from the Centre for Marine Ecosystems Research at Edith Cowan University
Professor Carlos Duarte is a Professor of Marine Science at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia
Dr Andy Steven is Coasts Research Director at CSIRO

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Research Springer Nature, Web page Please link to the article in online versions of your report (the URL will go live after the embargo ends).

Video Edith Cowan University, Web page Short video of Dr Oscar Serrano explaining the research - available for embed

Video Edith Cowan University, Web page Raw footage of Dr Serrano available for download

Other Australian Science Media Centre, Web page Briefing recording playback

Journal/
conference: Nature Communications

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Edith Cowan University, CSIRO, Australian Science Media Centre, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia

Funder: This project was supported by the CSIRO Marine & Coastal Carbon Biogeochemical Cluster, CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere, the ECU Faculty Research Grant Scheme and Early Career Research Grant Schemes, UTS Plant Functional Biology and Climate Change Cluster, NSW Southeast Local Land Services, Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP), Parks Victoria, Victorian Coastal Catchment Management Authorities (GHCMA, CCMA, PPWCMA, WGCMA, EGCMA), University of Queensland Centennial Scholarship, Hodgkin Trust Scholarship, Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering, Northern Territory Government Innovation Grant, Australian Research Council, the Generalitat de Catalunya, the ICTA ‘Unit of Excellence’ (MinECo, MDM2015-0552), Obra Social "LaCaixa", SUMILEN, CTM 2013-47728-R, Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and UKM-DIP-2017-005.

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