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16.12.2025 07:44

Europe-Wide Peatland Emissions Twice as High as Previously Estimated:

Dr. Elisabeth Böker Hochschulkommunikation
Universität Greifswald

Hotspot Map Shows Where Protection and Rewetting Are Particularly Effective

Drained peatlands in the EU emit around 232 megatonnes of CO2 equivalent every year - almost twice as much as the EU member states have so far declared to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This is the conclusion of a study now published in Nature Communications with the participation of Dr. John Couwenberg, PD Dr. Franziska Tanneberger and other researchers from the WETSCAPES2.0 Collaborative Research Centre at the University of Greifswald. The research team has produced the first high-resolution map of greenhouse gas emissions depicting drained peatlands.

The difference approximately corresponds to the annual emissions caused by all of Europe’s air traffic. In collaboration with researchers from Radboud University (Netherlands) and the Finnish research institute LUKE, extensive soil and land use data and greenhouse gas modelling from a supercomputer were used to create a hotspot map. It shows where emissions from drained peatlands are particularly high in the EU and where rewetting would be particularly effective.

North Sea coast, eastern Germany, Baltic States, Ireland: where the emissions are particularly high

The map shows clear regional hotspots. These include, in particular, the North Sea region (northwest Germany, the Netherlands, southeast England), eastern Germany, the Baltic States and eastern Poland, as well as Ireland and Northern Ireland. These regions have a particularly high impact in terms of total emissions from drained peatlands and together account for around 40 % of total EU peatland emissions.

They are home to many extensive, in parts very dense peatland areas that are used intensively for agriculture. For example: in the North Sea region, including north-west Germany, large areas of drained and once mighty coastal peatlands combined with intensive agricultural use are driving emissions particularly high - around 20 % of EU-wide peatland emissions come from a region that only covers around 4 % of Europe’s overall peatland area. Another hotspot is emerging in eastern Germany, where shallow but particularly extensive peatland areas have been comprehensively and radically drained for agriculture.

These regions are therefore particularly suitable for targeted and effective climate protection measures.

A critical step in EU reporting

To date, EU member states have not been required to submit detailed regional peatland data to the UNFCCC. This makes it difficult to record emissions precisely and to plan policy measures in a targeted manner. The hotspot map with a resolution of up to 1 km² closes this gap: "Our data very clearly shows that there is far better information available on the distribution of peatlands than is used in many national inventories," says PD Dr. Franziska Tanneberger. "We can now show in detail where the biggest sources of emissions are. It is incredibly important to make greenhouse gas emissions visible, and maps are very effective at this."

The hotspot map thus provides a new scientific basis for European climate policy: it makes it possible to improve the effectiveness of political instruments such as the Common Agricultural Policy, the Nature Restoration Regulation or carbon farming programmes as they can be tailored more specifically to the regions.

Why so little was reported in the past

A major reason for the large gap between scientific estimates and the official inventories is that many peatland areas are not recorded correctly. Peatlands used as pastures or forests are often not documented as peatlands. In addition, many inventories make use of incomplete emission factors. They do not take into account certain greenhouse gases or the runoff from dissolved organic carbons, which leads to a significant underestimation of actual emissions.

Drained peatlands are therefore one of the most underestimated climate factors in European reporting. Analyses previously assumed that they account for around 7% of EU greenhouse gas emissions, corresponding to the average overall consumption of 91 million cars. This clearly shows how urgent it is to reduce emissions from drained peatlands. The results of this study can provide a basis for future measures and at the same time improve European and international climate reporting.

Further information

Publication: van Giersbergen, Q.; Barthelmes, A.; Couwenberg, J.; Lång, K.; Martin, N.; Tegetmeyer, C.; Fritz, C.; Tanneberger: Identifying hotspots of greenhouse gas emissions from drained peatlands in the European Union. Nature Communications 16, 10825 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-65841-6

Collaborative Research Centre WETSCAPES2.0
The Collaborative Research Centre/Transregio 410 WETSCAPES2.0 is a research consort that belongs to the University of Greifswald and the University of Rostock and is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). It is dedicated to interdisciplinary basic research on rewetted peatlands with the aim of providing national and international policy-makers and stakeholders with a solid scientific basis for decision-making. Website https://botanik.uni-greifswald.de/experimentelle-pflanzenoekologie/wetscapes2/

Media release - How do Wet Landscapes Work? A DFG-Funded Cutting-Edge Research Project Led by the University of Greifswald Aims to Answer this Question https://www.uni-greifswald.de/en/university/information/current-news/details/n/h...

Greifswald Mire Centre
The Greifswald Mire Centre is a partnership between the University of Greifswald, the Michael Succow Foundation and DUENE e.V., acting as an interface between science, politics and practice and currently comprising 150 peatland experts in one location. It provides the scientific basis for targeted solutions to social challenges linked to peatlands. One of the joint databases at the Greifswald Mire Centre is the Global Peatland Database, which forms the basis for the spatial analysis in this study. Website https://update23.greifswaldmoor.de/home.html

Contact at the University of Greifswald
Luca Räther
Public Relations & Science Communication
Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology
Soldmannstraße 15, 17489 Greifswald
Tel.: +49 3834 420 4135
luca.raether@uni-greifswald.de
Profile Franziska Tanneberger https://www.linkedin.com/in/franziska-tanneberger-439579321/
Profile Quint van Giersbergen (Radboud University) https://www.linkedin.com/in/quint-van-giersbergen-752377147/

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Rewetted peatland in the Anklamer Stadtbruch
Quelle: Photo: John Couwenberg

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