World’s largely unprotected peatlands are ticking ‘carbon bomb’, warns study

Bogs and swamps are a colossal carbon store but their continued destruction would blow climate change targets

The world’s peatlands are “dangerously underprotected” despite the colossal amount of climate-heating carbon dioxide already being emitted due to their destruction, a study has warned.

Peatlands occupy just 3% of all land, but contain more carbon than all of the world’s forests. However, farmers and miners are draining the peatlands, releasing so much CO₂ that if they were a country, they would be the fourth biggest polluter in the world after China, the US and India.

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