Japan is Using Seagrass to Combat Climate Change and Achieve Carbon Neutrality

In Yokohama, Japan, a coastal city just south of Tokyo, over a hundred volunteers recently gathered to plant eelgrass in the seabed, an effort aimed at restoring the natural ecosystem and combating Climate change. This initiative reflects Japan’s broader commitment to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. As the world’s fifth-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, the country is exploring innovative ways to reduce its carbon footprint, including leveraging its extensive coastlines.

Source: The Marine Diaries/YouTube

Marine vegetation like eelgrass is proving to be a crucial ally in this fight. These plants are capable of absorbing and storing carbon dioxide, thus helping to offset the emissions responsible for Global warming. Keita Furukawa, a marine scientist at the Association for Shore Environment Creation, highlighted the project’s dual benefits: ecological restoration and carbon capture.

The significance of marine carbon, often referred to as “blue carbon,” is growing as terrestrial forests, which traditionally absorb significant amounts of CO2, are aging and losing their capacity to sequester carbon. In contrast, Japan’s marine and coastal ecosystems, including seagrass and seaweed beds, absorbed about 350,000 tons of carbon in fiscal year 2022. Although this accounts for only 0.03% of Japan’s total greenhouse gas emissions, it marks a crucial step forward in the country’s environmental strategy.

This year, Japan made a pioneering move by including the carbon absorption of its seagrass and seaweed beds in its annual Greenhouse Gas Inventory reported to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This inclusion underscores the growing importance of blue carbon in global efforts to mitigate Climate change.

While the current absorption rates are modest, the potential for expansion is significant. Furukawa believes that if eelgrass could be cultivated extensively in suitable shallow sea areas, it might capture up to 10 or 20% of human emissions, a testament to the potential power of natural solutions in our fight against climate change.

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