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

Peatlands, pictured here in the Scottish Highlands, contain more carbon than all of the world’s forests. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

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.