Sea Ice growth management

Up to 50% of the world’s glaciers are set to disappear this century, with many more at risk if emission reduction targets are not met (Rounce et al. 2023).

The pH of water is lowered when it takes up atmospheric carbon. Given that the Earth’s oceans serve as a major carbon sink, there is increasing interest in the possibility to artificially increase the alkalinity of water to restore pH to previous levels, and/or increase carbon uptake potential.

The concentration of GHGs in the atmosphere will have to be stabilized or lowered to mitigate or even reverse current global warming. To achieve this, current GHG emissions need to be reduced. Such mitigation strategies will however take time to deploy, and some emission sources will be difficult to mitigate. Moreover, since current atmospheric levels are already having a major warming effect, negative emission or Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) measures that reduce the amount of GHGs in the atmosphere are an active topic of research.

Black Carbon (BC), also known as soot, is produced through the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels and biomaterials. Apart from its negative health impacts, BC also has significant climate effects because it generally has a lower albedo than its surroundings, which increases the amount of radiation absorbed both when BC is present in the atmosphere and when it is deposited on land (Stjern et al. 2017). Due to the large albedo differences, the effects of BC are especially significant in areas that are normally covered in snow or ice (Hadley and Kirchstetter 2012; Sand et al. 2016; Kang et al. 2020).

Arctic sea ice extent has rapidly decreased over the last few decades, with most multi-year ice disappearing altogether. This has already had major effects on local communities and ecosystems. The disappearance of the relatively reflective sea ice also leads to a dramatic decrease of albedo in the Arctic and subsequent high energy uptakes by the darker water during the Arctic summers.

Wetlands and peatlands play important roles in global carbon cycles. Wetlands are areas that are seasonally covered by water. Globally mangroves are often the main topic of focus when it comes to wetlands (IPCC AR6 WG3, 2022, 7.4.2.8). In the Arctic and Northern regions, peatlands are important wetland elements, and will be the focus of what follows. Such peatlands are very carbon rich and store carbon in biomass below and above ground and in soil carbon. Although they only make up 3% of the Earth’s surface, peatlands store up to 21% of terrestrial carbon, and damaged peatlands contribute close to 5% of anthropogenic CO2 emissions (Leifeld et al. 2019). Peatland drainage between 1850 and 2015 has globally already released 80 Gt CO2-eq, and this figure may climb to 250 Gt CO2-eq by 2100 (Leifeld et al. 2019).

Compared to the global state of such areas, Arctic and Northern wetlands and peatlands remain relatively intact (UNEP 2021), and only around 2% of boreal peatlands are currently converted into croplands (Leifeld and Menichetti 2018). However, increasing attention is being paid to the importance of restoring destroyed areas, which make up 78% of total global peatlands, and preserving endangered ones, especially in light of the effects of climate change on such ecosystems. The Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands notes (CAFF 2021) therefore highlight the need for increased wetlands resilience to protect against future damage.

The concentration of GHGs in the atmosphere will have to be stabilized or lowered to mitigate or even reverse current global warming. To achieve this, current GHG emissions need to be reduced. Such mitigation strategies will however take time to deploy, and some emission sources will be difficult to mitigate. Moreover, since current atmospheric levels are already having a major warming effect, negative emission or Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) measures that reduce the amount of GHGs in the atmosphere are an active topic of research.

The concentration of GHGs in the atmosphere will have to be stabilized or lowered to mitigate or even reverse current global warming. To achieve this, current GHG emissions need to be reduced. Such mitigation strategies will however take time to deploy, and some emission sources will be difficult to mitigate. Moreover, since current atmospheric levels are already having a major warming effect, negative emission or Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) measures that reduce the amount of GHGs in the atmosphere are an active topic of research.