IPCC focuses in on peat

Until recently, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the IPCC have not highlighted the huge CO₂ emissions from degraded peatlands in their reports nor in their policies. With the publication of the ‘Summary for Policy Makers, Working Group III’, a contribution to the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, this has now changed.

The IPCC report makes clear how large the impact on climate change of peatland degradation and fires is. The report furthermore concludes that restoration of drained and degraded peatlands is among the key low cost green house gas mitigation strategies.

Even with this recently gained attention, it is very worrying that the issue of peatland degradation may have to wait until 2012 when new targets will be set for greenhouse gas reduction.

http://www.ipcc.ch/SPM040507.pdf