Professor Hans Joosten:

With respect to peatland rewetting, the first focus is not on sequestration but on avoiding existing emissions. Emissions from drained peatlands are an order of magnitude larger than the sequestration of wet peatlands, so the first priority is rewetting for avoidance. We can also trade these avoidance credits, which we are doing on the market, but we have to keep in mind that it will not be possible after 2050 because it will not be additional anymore, since we decided that in 2050, no emissions can take place anymore. Avoidance credits will not be marketable after 2050 but we have a limited time, of some 20 years, to use avoidance credits as a way to steer the machine to cover all possible developments, including the development of paludiculture.