COP28 in UAE Sings the Praises of Blue Carbon Ecosystems
By Selena Wallace
Photo: Panel of country representatives from the Mangrove Alliance, part of the Mangrove Breakthrough event at COP28
Coming into the second week of COP28 in Dubai, I was advised to temper my expectations for progress towards consensus from negotiations in the two areas I was most interested in observing: climate adaptation and loss and damage. In search of other opportunities for progress, I looked to country pavilions, NGO exhibitions, and side events. This parallel programming at COP offered concrete observations about interventions for increasing resilience, providing insight into avenues for adaptation policies and finance flows in the absence of global consensus. One theme that was especially popular this year was nature-based solutions and the concept of “blue carbon,” which promotes the role of coastal and ocean ecosystems in increasing the resilience of onshore communities, as well as protecting and building carbon sinks for the purpose of mitigating net greenhouse gas emissions.
Because the benefits of coastal ecosystems like mangroves, seagrass, and salt marshes have the potential to achieve both adaptation and even some mitigation goals, they have been highlighted in many developing countries’ National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) and are increasingly being incorporated into the next round of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) for 2025. As countries prepare for this next round in accordance with their obligation under the Paris Agreement to have progressively ambitious plans, many countries, such as Indonesia and the United States, already have identified new sectors, such as oceans and coastal ecosystems, to include. Although NDCs naturally serve the purpose of communicating parties’ ambitions and pledges, developing countries are also learning to craft their upcoming NDCs strategically, designing them as blueprints for climate investment to close the implementation and finance gaps that stagnate the tangible progress that can arise out of global climate negotiations.
Photo: Panel discussing the next round of NDCs for 2025, comprised of country-level ministry officials from Brazil, Indonesia, and Tunisia and INGO partners.
From left: Alyssa Scheiner (MALD ‘24), Senator Ed Markey (Massachusetts), and Selena at a reception in the Ocean Pavilion.
Fortunately, there is robust work already being done worldwide that can serve as a roadmap for these ecosystem-specific targets in upcoming NDCs. Country and NGO pavilions at the COP displayed various case studies of projects and initiatives that have already been implemented using ecosystem-based approaches. One such event at the Philippines Pavilion discussed case studies of the Climate Finance Accelerator Program, in which bilateral finance flows from development agencies like USAID were delivered to the Philippines to better address risks related to climate change. These projects included mangrove nurseries for forest rehabilitation and university partnerships to build capacity for habitat assessment and monitoring. This vision for finance flows was reiterated at the United States Pavilion in the very first US Peace Corps-hosted event at COP. This branch of the US government was initially created with the goals of culture-sharing, relationship-building, and development, but now has rising ambition to also play a role in addressing climate vulnerabilities in countries that invite US volunteers. My interest in coastal ecosystems for community resilience was borne from my experience as a US Peace Corps volunteer in the Philippines from 2017-2019, where I trained university students on habitat assessment and received USAID funding for a mangrove nursery establishment, so it was encouraging to see that these mutual goals for partnership and climate finance expressed at the COP are being recognized on the global stage and can serve as a model for further and more ambitious action.
Still, these efforts must be scaled up massively to accomplish the lofty goals set in the Paris Agreement. A critical step in realizing the true mitigation benefits of blue carbon at this scale is improving the mapping and data inventories that will ensure blue carbon sequestration is adequately accounted for and an addition to those emissions already reduced in other sectoral reforms. I’m fortunate to have developed skills in data analysis, visualization, and policy evaluation during my time at Fletcher that will set myself and my classmates up to meet this demand so that we can be ready for when the world powers ratchet up ambition and finally put their money where their mouth is.
Selena Wallace is a MALD student at The Fletcher School studying the intersections of public policy and ecosystems for climate resilience.