Wetlands, forests and oceans absorb and store carbon and these qualities make them important resources for countries following the Paris climate agreement’s targets for the reduction of CO2 emissions. So, what are the ways to use these resources most effectively?
The Paris accord was ratified by 196 governments at the 21st Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Paris and accepted by consensus/agreement on 12 December 2015. In 2016, the meeting was held on 7–18 November in Marrakech, Morocco, for the annual UN climate change conference. For the year 2017, this annual meeting is scheduled on 6–17 November in Bonn, Germany. The aim of these conference events is to focus on how countries can use natural resources to meet their CO2-reduction targets.
As the climate-change challenge is extremely high, so, it is the time to speed-up the sustainable development and ensures a better future for the planet. Under the Paris agreement, governments have promised to reduce their countries carbon emissions in order to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius. To achieve this goal, various signatories’ countries have presented and described their national action plans and these plans will become more ambitious with time.
These national action plans consist of renewable-energy targets and proposals for sustainable transportation, energy efficiency and education and countries should consider adopting policies to manage natural capital better. The Paris agreement itself identifies the important role that natural ecosystems play in controlling the emission of carbon in the atmosphere, and governments should not avoid such powerful tools.
There is the need to conserve existing ecosystems in a people-friendly way and government should take action in this direction and it is particularly true of wetlands that include all land areas like lakes, floodplains, peatlands, mangroves and coral reefs that are covered with water, either seasonally or permanently.
Peatlands cover only 3 per cent of the world’s total surface area but they have the capacity to store twice as much carbon as all forests combined, so, Peatlands are particularly important. Peatland soils are composed of carbon in the form of decomposed plant material that has accumulated for thousands of years and when peatlands are drained or burnt, that carbon is released into the atmosphere. In fact, the amount of carbon released in the atmosphere from draining peatlands is two times more than the aviation industry does.
In 2015, fires erupted across Indonesia’s forested peatlands. This raised concern all over the world about the quantity of carbon was being released into the atmosphere, to say nothing of the far-reaching health effects. Indonesia’s government estimated that peatland fires and deforestation alone account for more than 60 per cent of the country’s total greenhouse-gas emissions.
Conserving and restoring peatlands is the most effective method to reduce global CO2 emissions. In 2015, the Nordic council of ministers committed to preserve the region’s peatlands. About half of Nordic countries’ peatlands have been vanished, and this ecosystem degradation contributes 25 per cent of their total carbon emissions.
The Paris agreement indicates that there is global momentum for concrete action to address the causes of climate change, and its effects also, for example, the disastrous floods, water shortages and droughts are already affecting many countries.
According to UN-Water, as climate change worsens, then, 90 per cent of all natural hazards which are water-related will increase in frequency and intensity. But natural systems can alleviate them: wetlands act as sponges that reduce flood, delay the arrival of droughts and provide fresh water and are the food source for nearly three billion people; and mangroves, salt marshes and coral reefs all act as barriers that prevent storm surges.
Countries have a convenient platform to use for their future wetland-conservation efforts. The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands and an intergovernmental treaty under which 169 countries have committed to conserve and sustainably manage their wetlands, is an ideal medium to achieve their CO2-reduction targets, as well as to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals for 2030.
Achieving climate-neutrality is the long-term objective of the Paris agreement— no net greenhouse-gas emissions—in the second half of this century. To keep global warming below 2 degrees celsius, climate-neutrality is compulsory and to achieve this target, we must reduce emissions to that level that they can be fully and easily absorbed by nature. This was the natural cycle for millions of years before anthropogenic climate change began.
There are different ways to achieve climate-neutrality which includes political willpower, imaginative policies, new green technologies and clean-energy sources and a multi-trillion-dollar shift in investment towards sustainable economic areas and infrastructure and needs cost-effective investment in protection and expansion of natural wealth. To achieve success of a clean and rich future is only possible through nature-based resources like wetlands and forests.