A new study published in Nature Climate Change puts a trillion-dollar price tag on something long overlooked: the ocean’s power to remove carbon from the atmosphere. This so-called biological carbon pump (BCP), the silent force by which marine life draws down and buries atmospheric carbon, sequesters some 2.81 billion metric tons annually—locking away around 10 billion tons of carbon dioxide for decades, even centuries. This natural climate service, valued globally at more than PHP 56 trillion per year, is not merely an environmental marvel.

The Editorial Board. (2025, April 5-6). Marine carbon is the Philippnes' hidden wealth [Editorial]. DailyGuardian, p. 4.