Peatland drainage results in substantial emissions of carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide that should be addressed in a post-2012 climate policy framework. The global figures presented until now, however, (e.g. peat carbon pools of 550 Gtonnes C; annual emissions from degraded peatlands (including fires) of 2 Gigatonnes CO2 per year, Parish et al. 2008) do not clearly show the challenges and opportunities on regional and national levels, as they fail to highlight the different responsibilities of the various countries:

• To secure that pristine peatlands remain untouched, preventing their enormous carbon store from being mobilized (countries with much peatland and large volumes of peat)

• To implement rewetting programmes and use this attractive opportunity for climate change mitigation (countries with degraded peatlands)

• To conserve these landscapes as special components of biodiversity and as a source of palaeo-environmental information (countries where peatlands are rare)

• And - last but not least - to be aware of their peatland resource to pursue optimal and nationally differentiated climate policies (all countries)

This report presents the first overview ever of peatland carbon data for all countries and regions of the world. The report has been produced to facilitate the UN-FCCC climate negotiations in response to a call by countries for emission data caused by the Land Use Change and Forestry sector.