Peat

By Tim Christophersen, UNEP An often neglected ecosystem, and significant contributor to climate change, is peat. When it burns or dries up huge amounts of CO2 are released. The UK Met Office says carbon dioxide levels have seen a surge in recent months as a result of the El Niño climate phenomenon, which has warmed […]

Budiman Minasny, University of Sydney Last year, fires burned 2 million hectares of peatlands in Indonesia, creating an acrid haze that affected several neighbouring Southeast Asian countries. As nations met in Paris late last year to agree a deal to limit global greenhouse gas emissions, the huge carbon pool stored in the peatlands was going […]

Tropical peat swamps are key carbon storing landscapes, but the conversions of peat swamps into plantations of palm oil and Acacia are creating an ever-growing release of greenhouse gases. Peat swamps will continue to play an important part in the discussion about reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. Read the full post here. Original […]