Globally, peat stores up to 550 Gt of carbon, 42% of all soil carbon, which exceeds the carbon stored in all other vegetation types, including the world's forests, although it covers just 3% of the land's surface.

Peat is in principle a renewable source of energy. However, its extraction rate in industrialized countries far exceeds its slow regrowth rate of 1 mm 2 per year, and is also reported that peat regrowth takes place only in 30-40% of peatlands. Centuries