By CNBCTV18.com Nov 9, 2021 9:05:33 PM IST (Published)
Marine ecosystems such as mangroves, seagrass meadows and tidal marshes are powerful carbon sinks and are often referred to as blue carbon ecosystems.
When £20 million was spent on creating a 250-hectare salt marsh in the Steart Peninsula in Somerset in 2014, many critics had called it a “waste of money”.
At the time, the Environment Agency and the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust that spearheaded the project were hardly aware of the climate benefits of salt marsh. Meanwhile, others ridiculed it as an “extravagant, ridiculous scheme” that put birds ahead of humans.
Cut to 2021, world leaders, ministers, negotiators and representatives of various businesses, civil societies and international organisations are meeting at the ongoing COP26 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, UK, which ends on November 12, to discuss ways to cut emissions to limit global warming.