19 August 2026
What Is Blue Carbon?
Seagrass meadows and coastal ecosystems store carbon for decades; once disturbed, sediment carbon breaks down and returns to the atmosphere. Blue carbon is COP31's quiet but critical file.
When a seagrass meadow is damaged we do not only lose a living habitat; we also put at risk the carbon accumulated there over decades. Once the ecosystem is disturbed, organic carbon in the sediment breaks down again and part of it returns to the water or the atmosphere. That makes blue carbon a quiet but critical COP31 file: coastal ecosystems count on both the adaptation and the mitigation side — and without measurement and protection, the loss is irreversible.