Blue carbon provides an innovative path for high-quality development in the Yellow River Delta

At present, the Yellow River Delta faces problems such as soil salinization, eutrophication in coastal waters at the estuary, difficulties in carbon emission reduction in Shengli Oilfield, and weak ecological transformation of marine industries. In order to implement the ecological protection and high-quality development strategy of the Yellow River Basin, it is necessary to combine the development status of the Yellow River Delta and seek new development paths. The implementation of the Blue Carbon Action is to develop and protect blue carbon resources in the Yellow River Delta, breed coastal ecological products that help to solidify carbon and increase sinks, carry out carbon sink trading, and promote the development of the blue carbon industry. The author believes that relevant systems should be improved in a timely manner to promote green and low-carbon development in the Yellow River Delta.

Challenges facing ecological protection and high-quality development in the Yellow River Delta

The challenges of ecological protection and high-quality development in the Yellow River Delta mainly come from ecological improvement and industrial development and transformation.

On the one hand, the ecological status of the Yellow River Delta needs to be improved urgently. The Yellow River Delta is the main distribution area of coastal saline-alkali land around the Bohai Sea, including Dongying saline-alkali land covering an area of more than 3.41 million acres and Binzhou saline-alkali land covering an area of more than 2.43 million acres. The large amount of seawater intrusion has significantly increased the salt content of the soil in the Yellow River Delta, seriously affecting crop growth and causing difficulties in land use. Although the Yellow River Delta wetlands have been restored to some extent through the implementation of the Yellow River water and sediment regulation project and the Diaokou River ecological water replenishment project, overall, most of them are still moderately and severely saline-alkali land, and the soil management situation is severe.

At the same time, land-based pollution affects the ecosystem service functions of the estuary. As a connected part of the river-land-sea system, the water quality and land-based pollution of the river sections above the Yellow River Delta are directly related to the water environment quality of this section of the Yellow River and affect the ecological environment of the Yellow River estuary. Taking the total nitrogen in land-based pollutants as an example, the total nitrogen emissions in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River will reach 477,000 tons in 2022. The total nitrogen load of the Yellow River into the sea will reach 84,000 tons in 2023, and the average annual total nitrogen concentration into the sea will be 3.7 mg/L. The management and control of total nitrogen in rivers entering the sea are facing challenges. Correspondingly, there is eutrophication in the coastal waters of the Yellow River Estuary with nitrogen as the main pollutant and high nitrogen and low phosphorus as the main characteristics, which affects ecosystem service functions such as marine biological breeding grounds and climate regulation.

On the other hand, the Yellow River Delta has outstanding characteristics of heavy industrial structure and coal and oil energy structure, and the total carbon emissions and intensity are "double high". Shengli Oilfield, as the main source of carbon emissions in the Yellow River Delta, has insufficient reserves of low-carbon production technology, and has not yet completed large-scale promotion and application of oil displacement and storage technology, which has hindered carbon emission reduction in the Yellow River Delta. The marine industry in Dongying City is dominated by traditional resource-consuming industries such as marine fishery, oil and gas industry and chemical industry. Emerging marine industries such as new energy and comprehensive utilization of biological resources account for a small proportion. The growth of the marine industry is slow and lacks institutional incentives.

The relatively weak independent monitoring and scientific research forces of the Yellow River Delta National Nature Reserve also restrict the effectiveness of marine protected areas in coordinating ecological protection and economic development.

Systematic layout and implementation of blue carbon action

The Blue Carbon Action is a path to promote the realization of the service value of blue carbon ecosystems in coastal zones. It requires the protection and restoration of blue carbon ecosystems, and the use of market mechanisms to promote the realization of the ecological value, economic value and social value of blue carbon sinks. The content includes protection and restoration of blue carbon ecosystems, breeding coastal ecological products that help to sequester carbon and increase sinks, and conducting market transactions of carbon sink products. The author believes that if the Yellow River Delta wants to implement the Blue Carbon Action, it should coordinate the promotion of environmental governance and the transformation of development methods. The following aspects need to be done well.

Clarify the "three-step" strategy. The total area of coastal salt marshes in the Yellow River Delta is about 157.10 square kilometers, with tamarisk, reed and salt-salsa as the main vegetation. According to preliminary calculations, the carbon reserves of the coastal salt marsh ecosystem in the Yellow River Delta reach more than 440,000 tons. The average annual carbon sink capacity of the natural salt marsh wetlands in the Yellow River Delta exceeds 30,000 tons. The carbon reserves per unit area reach about 10kg/m2. The average carbon burial rate is More than 10 times that of the terrestrial ecosystem, it is an important blue carbon carbon bank, capable of capturing and storing large amounts of carbon, and has extremely high carbon sequestration efficiency. The Yellow River Delta is suitable for increasing the carbon sink of marine organisms and improving the carbon sink capacity of coastal ecosystems by breeding coastal ecological products such as oyster reefs, Suaeda salsa, tamarix, and reed swamps.

Based on preliminary research, the Yellow River Delta Reserve Management Agency cooperated with ecological product enrichment and breeding enterprises to carry out a mutually beneficial blue carbon industry project. It is planned to select about 50,000 acres of sea area to build a biological transect ecosystem from land to sea. By breeding oyster reefs and salt, coastal carbon-fixing organisms such as Suaeda salsa and Tamarix chinensis will restore biological transects, build artificial oyster reef restoration demonstration areas, and enhance the service functions and value of the oyster reef ecosystem. Therefore, the author believes that the implementation of the Blue Carbon Action in the Yellow River Delta can implement a "three-step" strategy: first, complete the Blue Carbon Action with the main content of protecting oyster reefs; second, continuously build a coastal ecological product conservation base with the goal of enriching blue carbon sinks; third, form a blue ecological product conservation model that combines land and sea, combines environmental protection, carbon sequestration, and utilization, and strengthen experience exchanges with other coastal zones and marine protected areas.

Implement coastal ecological protection and restoration with the goal of increasing foreign exchange. In conjunction with the preparation work of the Yellow River Estuary National Park, we will implement protection and restoration projects for coastal ecosystems such as seaweed beds and coastal salt marshes to give full play to the carbon sequestration and carbon storage potential of salt marshes; cooperate with professional ecological product enrichment and breeding enterprises to breed marine Carbon sequestration organisms promote the development of ecological industrialization. Measures such as setting up artificial fish reefs, proliferation and release will be taken to build marine pastures in the coastal waters of the Yellow River Delta, actively developing shellfish farming such as floating carbon-fixing algae and oysters, maintaining fishery resources and increasing fishery carbon sinks; giving full play to microorganisms in the coastal areas of the Yellow River Delta. Carbon sequestration and storage capacity will increase microbial carbon sinks, making it an important supplement to coastal ecosystems and fishery carbon sinks.

Carry out blue carbon technology innovation with the goal of increasing foreign exchange. Incorporate blue carbon into the marine ecological early warning and monitoring system, carry out background surveys and dynamic monitoring of marine carbon sinks, build a carbon sink information database, and expand the blue carbon information service industry. Relevant local governments can introduce experts on blue carbon, establish scientific research platforms, strengthen research on basic theories and micro biological carbon pumps, and cooperate with universities and other scientific research institutions to study blue carbon-related methodologies and sink enhancement technologies. Promote the integration of industry, academia and research in blue carbon, cultivate professional talents in the blue carbon field, and expand the blue carbon scientific research and education industry.

Promote the green development of the blue carbon industry. On the one hand, accelerate the development of new marine materials and marine energy-saving and environmental protection equipment industries, empower high-quality development of the marine economy and improve marine carbon sink capabilities; create clean energy industries such as offshore wind power, photovoltaics, hydrogen energy, tidal energy, and wave energy and marine pastures; encourage marine companies to change their energy use methods and increase the use of renewable energy. On the other hand, we will increase the market access threshold for high-energy-consuming and high-pollution projects and strengthen project carbon emission supervision; carry out energy-saving and environmentally friendly transformation of the shipbuilding industry, promote the recovery of residual gas during ship production, and install pollutant collection and treatment devices.

Promote blue carbon trading. We can learn from international standards, compile marine carbon sink methodologies according to local conditions, and explore trading of marine carbon sink development rights. Develop blue carbon derivative products and explore the use of market mechanisms to realize the value of blue carbon products. At the same time, we must actively promote the standardization and legalization of blue carbon trading, and also pay attention to the adverse impact of the blue carbon trading process on the ecological environment of marine protected areas. Establish a sound blue carbon market information disclosure system to ensure transparency in trading links.

Author's unit: School of Law, Ocean University of China