There is increasing interest in protecting, restoring and creating ‘blue carbon’ ecosystems (BCE; mangroves, tidal marshes and seagrasses) to sequester atmospheric CO₂-C and thereby contribute to climate change mitigation. While a growing number of countries aspire to report greenhouse gas emission and carbon sequestration changes from these ecosystems under voluntary international reporting requirements, few countries have domestic policy frameworks that specifically support the quantification and financing of carbon emission abatement through BCE management.

Australia, as home to approximately 5–11% of global blue carbon stocks, has a substantial interest in the development of blue carbon policy. Here we assess the potential inclusion of blue carbon within Australia's Emissions Reduction Fund, emphasizing issues and approaches that have global relevance. We used a participatory workshop of scientific experts and carbon industry stakeholders to identify blue carbon management actions that would meet the requirements of the Fund. In total, twelve actions were assessed for their greenhouse gas emission abatement potential and the ability to measure abatement reliably, using a combination of available data and qualitative and quantitative methods, including expert knowledge.

We identify and discuss the five most relevant and promising activities, encompassing the protection, restoration and creation of mangroves, tidal marshes and seagrasses. On a per area basis, mean abatement intensity of organic carbon (C_org) was highest for the (re)introduction of tidal flow resulting in establishment of mangrove (13–15 Mg C_org ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹) and tidal marsh (6–8 Mg C_org ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹), followed by land use planning for sea-level rise for the creation of new mangrove habitat (8 Mg C_org ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹). The avoided disturbance of existing mangroves, tidal marshes and seagrasses has the twofold benefit of avoiding remineralisation of existing stocks, plus the future annual abatement associated with the net sequestration of atmospheric CO₂-C as C_org with the continued functioning of these BCE. Our approach offers a template that uses best available information to identify options for carbon abatement through management of coastal landscapes, and details current knowledge gaps and important technical aspects that need to be considered for implementation in carbon crediting schemes.

保护，恢复和创造“蓝碳”生态系统（BCE；红树林，潮汐沼泽和海草）以隔离大气中的CO ₂ -C从而促进缓解气候变化的兴趣日益浓厚。尽管越来越多的国家希望根据自愿国际报告要求报告这些生态系统的温室气体排放和碳固存变化，但很少有国家拥有专门支持通过BCE管理量化和资助碳减排的国内政策框架。

澳大利亚是全球蓝碳储量的大约5-11％的发源地，对发展蓝碳政策有着浓厚的兴趣。在这里，我们评估了澳大利亚减排基金中可能包含的蓝碳，着重强调了与全球相关的问题和方法。我们使用了由科学专家和碳行业利益相关者参加的讲习班，以确定可以满足基金要求的蓝色碳管理行动。总体而言，结合可用数据以及包括专家知识在内的定性和定量方法，对十二项行动的温室气体减排潜力和可靠地衡量减排能力进行了评估。

我们确定并讨论了五个最相关和最有前途的活动，包括对红树林，潮汐沼泽和海草的保护，恢复和创造。按面积计算，潮汐流的（再）引入导致减少红树林（13–15 Mg _Corg  ha ^-1  yr ^-1）和潮汐沼泽的平均有机碳减排强度（C _org）最高。6–8 Mg C _org  ha ^-1  yr ^-1），然后进行海平面上升的土地利用规划，以创建新的红树林栖息地（8 Mg C _org  ha ^-1  yr ^-1）。的避免干扰现有的红树林，潮汐沼泽和海草具有避免现有种群再矿化的双重好处，加上随着这些BCE的持续运行，大气中CO ₂ -C作为C _org的净固存带来的未来年度减排。我们的方法提供了一个模板，该模板使用最佳可用信息来识别通过管理沿海景观而实现的碳减排方案，并详细说明了当前的知识差距和在碳信用额度计划中需要考虑的重要技术方面。