Our past project
Peatlands restoration in Europe
An unsung climate hero, healthy peatlands store twice as much carbon as the world's forests, as well as being key to climate adaptation efforts. Yet far from being climate champions, degraded peatlands are responsible for around five per cent of global emissions each year. This trend must be reversed to achieve a just prosperous future for all.
Learn more about our work on Europe’s peatlands in the case study linked below.
Why did we focus on European peatlands?
Globally, drained peatlands release around 1.9 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases annually, equivalent to around 5% of all global greenhouse gas emissions every year.
After Indonesia, the European Union is the second-largest emitter of emissions from drained organic soils worldwide.
Europe has 12% of the world’s peatlands, and 50% of peatlands in the European Union alone are degraded.
The reduction potential of emissions in the EU27 through restoration efforts is 200 Mt CO2e per year, equivalent to roughly 5% of the official European Union greenhouse gas emission.
Our campaign in numbers
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50 businesses & investors
We bought the topic of peatlands to 50 business and investor organisations who were not yet working on the topic
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95 organisations & CEOs
15 business & investor organisations and 80 CEOs urged EU decision makers to protect nature
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5 million
Our co-designed social media campaign reached 5 million citizens across Germany on the topic of peatlands protection
Campaign highlights:
The European Council and Parliament reached an agreement in November 2023 on the Nature Restoration Law, including language requiring Member States to take measures to revitalise peatlands; a significant success for ours and our partners’ efforts. This came despite the law coming under intense pressure and attack from a negative, public campaign led by the European People’s Party.
Business support was cited as an important driver for the proposed law, following efforts by us and our partner Corporate Leaders Group Europe to mobilise the business community in support of the law.
We saw increased attendance and participation from business and investor organisations, financial institutions and others in learning events and workshops over the lifetime of our campaign. Participants also actively sought out opportunities to learn more.
The public awareness campaign run by Greifswald Mire Centre, Eurosite and Climate Catalyst effectively bridged the gap between the scientific community and the public and brought new voices and perspectives into the conversation, such as communities actively living and working on or around peatlands.
Business Guide to Peatlands
The business community plays a crucial role on the protection and preservation of a nations Peatlands. In turn, Peatlands offer a variety of benefits to the business community as well.
Learn more about this relationship in our Business Guide to Peatlands, linked below.
Want to learn more?
To learn more about this campaign or to find out more about potentially collaborating with us get in touch here or by emailing info@climatecatalyst.org.