A supplement to describe the new global understanding of how wetlands fit into the national inventories of emissions and removals of greenhouse gases will address gaps within the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories: Wetlands. Approximately 75 experts representing 30 countries recently met in Hayama, Japan, where lead authors and coordinating lead authors framed the supplement to the 2006 report.

Environment Canada’s Dr. Rick Bourbonniere is on the lead-author team of 10 experts for Chapter 2, Cross-Cutting Guidance on Organic Soils. This chapter will address wetland drainage, land use and land use intensity changes, fires on peatlands, and additional methodology for organic soils in the five Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) landscape classes: forestlands, croplands, grasslands, wetlands, and settlements.

The 2013 Supplement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories: Wetlands will take about 15 months to complete and undergo a scientific peer review and a national governments’ review before it is formally presented to the IPCC. 

Contact: Rick Bourbonniere, 905-336-4547, rick.bourbonniere@ec.gc.ca, Aquatic Ecosystem Impacts Research