New study shows that peatland restoration can provide a climate benefit at all timescales

According to a new study based on data from The Wildlife Trusts, peatland restoration can contribute to climate change mitigation in the near- and long-term. This research was presented by NbSI’s Xiao Zhang at the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) UK Peatland Programme Conference 2024 held in Aviemore, Scotland, from 17th-19th September.

An example of UK Peatland

Peatland occupies 12% of the UK land area, but 78% of them have been degraded by human modification. In degraded peatlands, the highly organic soils dry out and emit large amount of carbon dioxide, making them a major source of land-related greenhouse gas emissions in the UK. Peatland restoration through rewetting reverses this, returning peatlands to the carbon dioxide capturing condition, and could therefore provide an important contribution to achieving net-zero. However, there have also been concerns that the elevated methane emissions associated with peatland restoration may initially cancel out the climatic benefits of reducing carbon dioxide losses, as methane is a strong but short-lived greenhouse gas.

To address this issue, NbSI’s Xiao has been working on an NbSI and Agile Initiative project estimating the change in greenhouse gas emissions before and after restoration, using peatland area and restoration data shared by The Wildlife Trusts restored peatlands, and explored the expected climate impacts across a range of timescales.

Importantly, she found that no matter what time horizon was set, and even when considering the uncertainties associated with peatland emission factors, the restoration work undertaken by Wildlife Trusts has likely already provided large emission reductions. Furthermore, Xiao demonstrated that even though methane emission did increase after restoration, the switch from peatlands capturing rather than emitting carbon dioxide was still enough to provide a net climate benefit, even in the very near-term.

Further restoration of sites to their proposed target conditions – likely targeted biodiversity and ecosystem benefits more than just climate change mitigation- is expected to provide a smaller amount of further emission savings, but still enough to enhance the long-term cooling potential offered by health peatlands. This work is a useful case study confirming the value of peatland restoration projects.

Photo credit: Catherine Baldwin

This study was undertaken as  part of a project on uncertainties in greenhouse gas emission assessment, through The Agile Initiative at the Oxford Martin School.