Our new report: Blue carbon and rewilding our waters
2 minute read
We’ve launched a new report in partnership with Rewilding Britain: Blue Carbon – Ocean-based solutions to fight the climate crisis.
The report outlines the importance of our seas in helping the UK to reach net zero by 2050.
To ‘reach net zero’ the amount of greenhouse gases produced, and the amount taken away or absorbed, must come to zero. So, while we can all try to fly less, walk more and take individual actions to reduce our carbon footprint, we also need to push for more solutions to removing greenhouse gases.
By protecting and rewilding habitats in our ocean, blue carbon stores will have increased capacity and ability to store carbon.
Credit: Michael Smith ITWP via Shutterstock
Dr Chris Tuckett, Director of Programmes: “Our report outlines how vital blue carbon solutions are to an effective strategy which reaches net zero by 2050. We’re calling on the UK Government and devolved administrations to act with urgency to invest in, co-develop and implement a four nation Blue Carbon Strategy.”
Read more about the Blue Carbon Strategy, and key action areas in the full report.
Thong weed seaweed off the Isle of Coll
Credit: Mark Kirkland
Rebecca Wrigley, Rewilding Britain’s Chief Executive: "Allowing a rich rainbow of underwater habitats and their sealife to recover offers huge opportunities for tackling the nature and climate crises, and for benefiting people’s livelihoods,”
“From Dornoch Firth to Lyme Bay, inspiring projects are leading the way by restoring critically important seagrass meadows, kelp forests and oyster beds. Combined with the exclusion of bottom towed trawling and dredging, such initiatives offer hope and a blueprint for bringing our precious seas back to health.”
Later this year, the UK will be hosting COP26 - the UN Climate Change Conference – in Glasgow. The conference brings together world leaders to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The ocean and its blue carbon stores are a crucial part of the many urgent and varied solutions required to address the climate crisis.
The UK has committed to significantly increase its spending on nature-based solutions, including those offered by the ocean. The Marine Conservation Society and Rewilding Britain are calling on UK governments to adopt ocean-based solutions at pace and scale by 2030.
