Ignoring Canada’s peatlands is a catastrophe in the making

Canada’s vast northern lands contain a global treasure critical for tackling the dual climate and biodiversity crises: peatlands. These watery landscapes called bogs, fens, swamps, or ‘muskeg’ are home to multiple species and store massive amounts of carbon that must be protected to avoid catastrophic climate change. Canada has one-quarter of the world’s peatlands within its borders, storing more carbon than the Amazon Rainforest. Our nation is, therefore, responsible for preventing the release of a colossal amount of carbon—estimated to be 150 billion tons and equivalent to 11 years of current global greenhouse gas emissions. These carbon-rich ecosystems are one of our greatest allies in the fight against climate change. Peatlands across the world cool the earth’s climate by slowly removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing it in peat soils for thousands of years. Peatlands store around 30 per cent of the world’s soil carbon on just three per cent of the earth’s surface—more carbon than all the trees on the planet, safely locked up in deep layers of partially decayed plant material on waterlogged ground. Lorna Harris is a scientist and program lead at the Conservation Society Canada. Photograph courtesy of Conservation Society Canada When drained or otherwise disturbed, peatlands release large amounts of carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere. If degraded or destroyed, this hidden climate defence will disappear and become a significant climate problem. And the stakes are high for Canada—releasing just one per cent of the carbon stored in our peatlands would increase current annual global greenhouse gas emissions by 11 per cent. Ironically, our push to reach net-zero emissions further increases the risk to peatlands. Many of the so-called “critical minerals” required for electric vehicles and green energy production are located beneath critical peatland carbon stores. As Canada looks to the north in pursuit of these minerals, potentially with the financial backing of the American government, national emissions reduction targets and global climate commitments will become increasingly out of reach. This is a severe concern for peatland experts worldwide and something we cannot ignore. COP15, the ongoing talks on the Convention on Biological Diversity in Montreal, follows quickly on the heels of the climate talks in Egypt and provides another crucial opportunity within this ‘decision decade’ for ambitious action to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and safeguard nature. If Canada is serious about reaching its targets for emissions reductions and halting biodiversity loss, including protecting 30 per cent of the land by 2030, it must take action to prevent the continued loss and degradation of peatlands across the country. There is simply no room in Canada’s carbon budget for inaction. Many peatlands across Canada have already been degraded or lost to agriculture, forestry, fires, mining, and infrastructure development. While increased efforts to restore these ecosystems can prevent ongoing emissions, the carbon lost from degraded peatlands cannot be recovered in our lifetimes. Fortunately, there is still time to protect large areas of intact peatlands across the country, including the vast boreal and subarctic peatlands of the Hudson Bay Lowland. Called the ‘Breathing Lands’ in English by some Indigenous communities in the region, the Hudson Bay Lowland is the largest peatland in North America and the second largest in the world. These peatlands also provide habitat for myriad species, including globally rare plants and lichens, caribou, polar bear, and millions of migratory birds. As a landscape of great cultural importance, Indigenous Peoples have stewarded these ecosystems since time beyond memory. But this prized jewel among the world’s peatland treasures is threatened by mining and associated road development. Plans to dig up these massive peatland carbon stores to reach mineral deposits in the Ring of Fire area in northern Ontario place Canada’s climate targets at considerable risk. If only half of the estimated stored carbon in the peatlands in the Ring of Fire is released to the atmosphere – roughly 800 million tonnes of carbon dioxide—it will double Canada’s annual reported greenhouse gas emissions. The math is clear: to attain its goals for climate, Canada must balance the needs of peatlands with a just transition to a net-zero-focused economy. Keeping carbon locked in Canada’s peatlands is one of the most important contributions we can make to stopping climate change. The time to act is now. Lorna Harris is a scientist and program lead of forests, peatlands, and climate Change at the Wildlife Conservation Society Canada. She is an ecosystem scientist working on the ecology, hydrology, and biogeochemistry of peatlands, wetlands, and forests. Her research focuses on carbon cycling and the effects of environmental change in peatlands across the boreal and subarctic of Canada, including the Hudson Bay Lowland, northern Alberta, and the Northwest Territories. The Hill Times