Abstract
The capacity of blue carbon ecosystems (defined in this report to include mangroves, tidal marshes and seagrasses) to sequester carbon dioxide and mitigate climate change is generating significant interest among scientists and policy makers worldwide. The carbon stored within these blue carbon ecosystems represents nearly 50% of all carbon accumulation in marine sediments, despite occupying just 0.2% of the ocean surface (Duarte et al. 2013b). Australia is home to a substantial area of the world’s blue carbon ecosystems and has also been a focal point of recent scientific advances in understanding the carbon dioxide storage function of these ecosystems (including through the CSIRO Coastal Carbon Cluster ‐ www.csiro.au/en/Research/OandA/Areas/Coastal‐management/Coastal‐ Carbon‐Cluster). Australia has voluntarily elected to include blue carbon ecosystems in its national greenhouse gas (GHG) accounts. As a consequence, Australia is also considering the development of its domestic policy instruments to reduce national GHG emissions. These instrumentsinclude potential methods that allow for sequestration and emissions avoidance projects specifically in blue carbon ecosystems.
