A new programme announced by Climate Impact Partners and Deloitte, in collaboration with Project Seagrass, will channel critical funding to the UK’s National Oceanography Centre (NOC) to support UK seagrass restoration and unlock long-term finance to save and restore seagrass meadows across the UK and beyond.
Through this programme, NOC aims to provide new insights into the long-term carbon storage potential of seagrass habitats, which can capture carbon more effectively than forest habitats on land.
In the last century, a third of global seagrass habitats have been lost and are now widely recognised as being vital for protecting coastlines, and supporting marine biodiversity.
Findings from the research will underpin the development of a seagrass carbon code and blue carbon framework – enabling companies to finance seagrass restoration at greater speed and scale. Researchers based at NOC will analyse and carbon-date sediment cores stored in NOC’s British Oceanographic Sediment Core Facility (BOSCORF), alongside collecting new samples. This research will reveal how quickly seagrass binds and stores carbon – evidence critical to the creation of the code and framework.
Holly Evans, Head of Philanthropy at NOC, said: “Thanks to the collaboration and generous support of organisations like Deloitte on the UK seagrass recovery programme, to which we are contributing through our Blue Carbon Fund, we are growing our understanding of blue carbon stored around the UK and enabling large scale restoration of the UK’s seagrass beds. Individuals, foundations and corporations all have an important role to play in understanding our changing ocean, so as a collective we can play our part in helping to restore it.”
Unlocking large-scale seagrass recovery
The programme forms a key part of Deloitte’s Beyond Value Chain Mitigation (BVCM) activities – a mechanism initiated by the Science-Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) to enable companies to accelerate the global net-zero transformation by supporting mitigation actions or investments outside their own value chains.
“Reaching net-zero will require the global economy to decarbonise as part of a connected system,” said Smruti Naik-Jones, Chief Sustainability Officer of Deloitte UK and North & South Europe. “This incredible seagrass programme, developed by Climate Impact Partners, enables us to learn more about these marine ecosystems, fund critical research and help unlock a powerful tool in the fight against the climate crisis.”