Seagrass is a huge carbon store, but will government value it?

The Conversation

06 September 2013

Australia is surrounded by a thin green line of seagrass meadows potentially worth A$5.4 billion on international carbon markets, and which could contribute to Australia and other nations meeting carbon emissions targets. Whether that potential can be realised is very much dependent on the type of carbon management scheme our next government puts in place.

Most people are aware forests lock up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This is a part of our carbon accounting scheme and underpins tree-planting and forest conservation schemes, giving value to this “green carbon”. Until now, the carbon captured by marine plant systems, so-called “blue carbon”, has largely been ignored in carbon accounting. Read more