Black Carbon, Brown Carbon, Blue Carbon & Green Carbon Explained

Brown Carbon: It is a Green house Gases (a gas which absorbs radiation and traps heat in the earth’s atmosphere, e.g. CO2)

Black Carbon: It is also a green house gas and causes more pollution than Brown Carbon. The particles leftover from incomplete combustion of fossil fuels (soot and dust), which has a greater effect on radiation transmission. This in turn can directly and indirectly reduce the albedo effect of global snow and ice.

“Green Carbon” Carbon incorporated into plant biomass and the soils below. Green carbon is carbon removed by photosynthesis aind stored in the plants and soil of natural ecosystems and is a vital part of the global carbon cycle.Many plants and most crops, have short lives and release much of their carbon at the end of each season, but forest biomass accumulates carbon over decades and centuries. Furthermore, forests can accumulate large amounts of CO2 in relatively short periods, typically several decades.Afforestation and reforestation are measures that can be taken to enhance biological carbon sequestration.

“Blue Carbon“- carbon captured by the world’s ocean critters, and over half of all carbon in living organisms resides here, under the glassy and deceiving barren big blue. Important coastal vegetation habitats such as mangroves and seagrasses which acquire the carbon stored in marine sediments are being lost at a rate 5-10 times higher than the rainforests

Blue Carbon refers to coastal, aquatic and marine carbon sinks held by the indicative vegetation, marine organism and sediments.In particular, coastal ecosystems such as tidal marshes, mangroves, and seagrasses remove carbon from the atmosphere and ocean, storing it in plants and depositing it in the sediment below them by natural processes.These coastal ecosystems are very efficient at sequestering and storing carbon - each square mile of these systems can remove carbon from the atmosphere and oceans at rates higher than each square mile of mature tropical forests..Furthermore, coastal ecosystems have been found to store huge quantities of carbon in organic rich sediments - up to 5 times more carbon than many temperate and tropical forests.These ecosystems are found in all continents, except Antarctica.

Why is Blue Carbon Ecosystem Important?

> Preventing degradation and destruction and promoting restoration of coastal ecosystems is a significant tool to mitigate climate change.

> The coastal ecosystems of mangroves, tidal marshes, and seagrasses are some of the most rapidly disappearing natural systems on Earth.

> When lost they not only stop sequestering carbon but also release their stores of carbon;and become new sources of climate change causing carbon emissions which can last for cerituries.

The Blue Carbon Initiative

> The Blue Carbon Initiative is the first integrated program with a comprehensive and coordinated global agenda focused on mitigating climate change through the conservation and restoration of coastal marine ecosystems.

International Cooperation

> Conservation International (CI), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)/ and the Intergovernmental Oceanic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO is collaborating with governments, research institutions;' nongovernmental and international organizations, and communities around the world to

> Develop management approaches, financial incentives and policy mechanisms for ensuring conservation and restoration of coastal Blue Carbon ecosystems;

> Engage local, national, and international" governments to ensure policies and regulations support coastal Blue Carbon conservation, management and financing;

> Develop comprehensive methods for coastal carbon accounting;

> Develop incentive mechanisms such as carbon payment schemes for Blue Carbon projects; and

> Implement projects around the world that demonstrate the feasibility of coastal Blue Carbon accounting, management, and incentive agreements;

> Support scientific research into the role and importance of coastal Blue Carbon ecosystems for climate change mitigation.