APPG hears from experts on Blue Carbon financing

Yesterday, the APPG was delighted to hear from Harry Wright from Bright Tide, Aisling McGarrigle from the Blue Marine Foundation and Dr Claire Evans from the National Oceanography Centre on Blue Carbon financing, with a good discussion on the legal, licensing and scientific barriers facing blue carbon projects in the UK.

Blue carbon habitats are essential nature-based solutions in tackling climate change, playing an important role in decreasing greenhouse gas emissions, capturing and storing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and enhancing resilience of ecosystems against climate hazards such as flooding and sea-rise levels. In particular, vegetated coastal ecosystems such as mangroves, saltmarshes, and seagrasses are among the Earth’s most efficient carbon sinks. However, these are some of the most threatened and degraded habitats on Earth. Funding for projects to restore and maintain our blue carbon habits is therefore a vital part of climate mitigation. However, while capital to support blue carbon projects is available, there are significant financing gaps that make the funding of such projects slow and difficult.

We were grateful to Baroness Jenny Jones for chairing the meeting and for parliamentarians for their questions!