Carbon sequestration in BLUe EcoSystems

C-BLUES will significantly advance knowledge and understanding of blue carbon ecosystems (BCEs) seagrasses, tidal marshes, mangroves, macroalgae, and macroalgae mariculture aiming to achieve three overarching objectives: 1) develop new scientific knowledge within BCEs to reduce scientific uncertainty and improve reporting of blue carbon under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), 2) provide input to a possible revision of the 2013 IPCC Wetlands Supplement to increase inclusion of coastal wetlands in national greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories and reporting, 3) raise awareness and promote the role of blue carbon for delivering global climate policy commitments in collaboration with Chinese and other international partners.

C-BLUES will perform the following: produce spatial maps, methodological best practices and standard operating procedures; enable more robust and reliable quantification of carbon emissions and sequestration; model sequestration capacity and upscale regional and global GHG budgets; assess carbon stock changes, GHG emissions and removals related to different management interventions and human activities; review legal and institutional frameworks governing BCEs; and assess the drivers and barriers for integrating coastal wetlands into national reporting mechanisms under the UNFCCC.

C-BLUES will target the following Mission Ocean Lighthouse Areas (LA): LA Atlantic/Arctic, LA Baltic and North Sea, and LA Mediterranean Sea. The Black Sea, Dutch Antilles, and through collaboration with China, the Southern China coast will also be covered.

C-BLUES will engage with the scientific community, climate and coastal policy makers and the wider civil society to disseminate the knowledge generated, raise awareness of BCEs and build capacity for blue carbon research inclusion.

C-BLUES will effectively impact national and international climate policy work so that BCEs more prominently are included in reporting and management actions.