News

Quantifying carbon stocks in mountain grasslands

28.08.2014

Carbon market and climate finance schemes, such as the Clean Development Mechanism, REDD+ and the Green Climate Fund, are being examined for their ability to achieve enhanced sustainability outcomes in terrestrial forests, lowland grasslands and marine ecosystems, all which store large amounts of carbon (C). To date, however, climate policy discourse has largely overlooked the conservation of existing carbon stored in mountain grasslands and shrublands. These ecosystems provide critical ecological goods and services to humanity yet are increasingly at risk from anthropogenic stressors including agricultural intensification, mining and climate change. The absence of a global estimate for these carbon stocks is likely to be one reason for their exclusion from climate change policy discussions, both on a political and scientific basis. 

Adrian Ward, Director of CarbonLab, suggests that this represents a missed opportunity in two respects: firstly, by conserving and restoring existing carbon stocks, the impacts of climate change can be lessened; and secondly, carbon finance and climate finance might provide the necessary financial support to address the aforementioned stressors. In a recent study published in “Global Environmental Change”, CarbonLab estimated there to be between 60.5 Pg C and 82.8 Pg of carbon contained within biomass and soils of the world’s mountain grasslands and shrublands. To put this in perspective, globally tropical Savannas and grasslands, temperate forests and tropical peatlands are estimated to contain 326–330 Pg C, 159–292 Pg C and 88.6 Pg C, respectively.

Carbonlab's review of existing empirical studies and of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) national greenhouse accounts suggests that this C is not reliably accounted for in international carbon budgets. This study, according to Ward, provides a much needed global point of reference, useful in developing future research and in climate policy discussions.

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Photo: Adrian Ward