Nature

China explores ‘blue carbon justice’

Two people found guilty of fishing with prohibited gear have purchased “blue carbon” credits rather than paying to restore the fish stocks they had damaged.

“Blue carbon” is the carbon stored by the world’s ocean and coastal ecosystem.

This is the latest case in which purchases of carbon credits, including blue ones, have entered China’s judicial system as an alternative means of ecological restoration.

The two people caused 6,352 yuan (approximately US$883) of damage and purchased 242 tons of credits to make up for it, according to the People’s Procuratorate of Wenzhou City, as reported by China National Radio Network.

The law states they should bear responsibility for fixing the damage within a reasonable time period. Fish stocking would be the main method, but requires specific technical skills and timing, Zhejiang Daily explained.

Zhejiang Daily had last year reported that the “blue carbon justice” transaction funds will go to a special blue carbon account and be used for maintaining mangroves, fish stocking and improving the quality of river water.

Courts in some coastal provinces have begun to explore this idea blue carbon justice. China National Radio Network reported in 2021 that the country’s first blue carbon ecological protection tribunal had been established in Fujian.

According to the judicial interpretation of the Supreme People’s Court, when direct ecological restoration is not feasible, buying credits can be used as an alternative.

However, the interpretation only clarifies that forest carbon credits can replace liability for forest damage compensation. According to the Procuratorate Daily, China has not yet established a national marine ecological compensation mechanism. Blue carbon is still in its infancy in China, with unclear measurement methods and a lack of standards for assessment and identification.

Read China Dialogue’s analysis of forest carbon credits as an alternative to direct restoration.

Cookies Settings

Dialogue Earth uses cookies to provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser. It allows us to recognise you when you return to Dialogue Earth and helps us to understand which sections of the website you find useful.

Required Cookies

Required Cookies should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

Dialogue Earth - Dialogue Earth is an independent organisation dedicated to promoting a common understanding of the world's urgent environmental challenges. Read our privacy policy.

Cloudflare - Cloudflare is a service used for the purposes of increasing the security and performance of web sites and services. Read Cloudflare's privacy policy and terms of service.

Functional Cookies

Dialogue Earth uses several functional cookies to collect anonymous information such as the number of site visitors and the most popular pages. Keeping these cookies enabled helps us to improve our website.

Google Analytics - The Google Analytics cookies are used to gather anonymous information about how you use our websites. We use this information to improve our sites and report on the reach of our content. Read Google's privacy policy and terms of service.

Advertising Cookies

This website uses the following additional cookies:

Google Inc. - Google operates Google Ads, Display & Video 360, and Google Ad Manager. These services allow advertisers to plan, execute and analyze marketing programs with greater ease and efficiency, while enabling publishers to maximize their returns from online advertising. Note that you may see cookies placed by Google for advertising, including the opt out cookie, under the Google.com or DoubleClick.net domains.

Twitter - Twitter is a real-time information network that connects you to the latest stories, ideas, opinions and news about what you find interesting. Simply find the accounts you find compelling and follow the conversations.

Facebook Inc. - Facebook is an online social networking service. China Dialogue aims to help guide our readers to content that they are interested in, so they can continue to read more of what they enjoy. If you are a social media user, then we are able to do this through a pixel provided by Facebook, which allows Facebook to place cookies on your web browser. For example, when a Facebook user returns to Facebook from our site, Facebook can identify them as part of a group of China Dialogue readers, and deliver them marketing messages from us, i.e. more of our content on biodiversity. Data that can be obtained through this is limited to the URL of the pages that have been visited and the limited information a browser might pass on, such as its IP address. In addition to the cookie controls that we mentioned above, if you are a Facebook user you can opt out by following this link.

Linkedin - LinkedIn is a business- and employment-oriented social networking service that operates via websites and mobile apps.