Seaweed could play a considerable role in fighting climate change: so says a new study which finds that cultivating lush expanses of seaweed off the coastlines of the world could sequester huge amounts of carbon, and even offset a portion of agriculture’s vast emissions.

Published in Current Biology, the study found by analysing coastal habitats worldwide, that an expansive area of coastline – 48 million square kilometres – would be suitable for global seaweed production. If we farmed even just a tiny fraction of that area – 273 square kilometres, or 0.001% – the growing seaweed would lock enough carbon to offset the emissions of the entire aquaculture sector.