Why forests are key to the climate - and not just to absorb carbon
Publication year
Resource type
UNCCD Library
Material Type
news article
What’s the context?
From reducing temperatures to stopping disease, forests play a bigger role than just cutting emissions to combat climate change
Forests are world's biggest land-based carbon absorbers
Rainfall stabilisation, cooling among other benefits
Deforestation threatens global food and water security
LONDON - From the Amazon rainforest to the boreal forests of the northern hemisphere, forests play a crucial role in absorbing planet-warming carbon dioxide (CO2) as the world faces a race against time to avert the worst impacts of climate change.
Forests are the largest carbon sinks on land, removing approximately 7.6 billion metric tonnes of CO2 each year from the atmosphere, which is around one-and-a-half times the average annual emissions of the United States.
Governments are taking action to protect these natural stores of CO2, with more than 140 countries pledging at last year's U.N. COP26 talks to halt and reverse forest loss by 2030, although a recent analysis found they are not on track.
The Forest Declaration Assessment found that deforestation worldwide slowed by 6.3% in 2021 compared to the 10% annual reduction needed.
But protecting forests doesn't just protect their crucial carbon-absorbing abilities.
Forests also are vital for the climate and nature in myriad other ways, providing benefits that scientists are increasingly able to quantify.
Help to cool down the globe
The cooling impact of forests goes beyond their ability to absorb planet-heating CO2 emissions.
Keeping tropical forests standing provides a 50% greater impact on lowering global temperatures then can be accounted for simply through their carbon-absorbing abilities, according to a new report by the World Resources Institute (WRI), a think tank.
"Forests are even more important than we thought for stabilising the climate," said Frances Seymour, a WRI senior fellow who co-authored the report.
Stands of trees, for instance, provide "evapotranspiration" - the process by which water is released from the soil into the atmosphere to fall as rain.
READ further from the source above
From reducing temperatures to stopping disease, forests play a bigger role than just cutting emissions to combat climate change
Forests are world's biggest land-based carbon absorbers
Rainfall stabilisation, cooling among other benefits
Deforestation threatens global food and water security
LONDON - From the Amazon rainforest to the boreal forests of the northern hemisphere, forests play a crucial role in absorbing planet-warming carbon dioxide (CO2) as the world faces a race against time to avert the worst impacts of climate change.
Forests are the largest carbon sinks on land, removing approximately 7.6 billion metric tonnes of CO2 each year from the atmosphere, which is around one-and-a-half times the average annual emissions of the United States.
Governments are taking action to protect these natural stores of CO2, with more than 140 countries pledging at last year's U.N. COP26 talks to halt and reverse forest loss by 2030, although a recent analysis found they are not on track.
The Forest Declaration Assessment found that deforestation worldwide slowed by 6.3% in 2021 compared to the 10% annual reduction needed.
But protecting forests doesn't just protect their crucial carbon-absorbing abilities.
Forests also are vital for the climate and nature in myriad other ways, providing benefits that scientists are increasingly able to quantify.
Help to cool down the globe
The cooling impact of forests goes beyond their ability to absorb planet-heating CO2 emissions.
Keeping tropical forests standing provides a 50% greater impact on lowering global temperatures then can be accounted for simply through their carbon-absorbing abilities, according to a new report by the World Resources Institute (WRI), a think tank.
"Forests are even more important than we thought for stabilising the climate," said Frances Seymour, a WRI senior fellow who co-authored the report.
Stands of trees, for instance, provide "evapotranspiration" - the process by which water is released from the soil into the atmosphere to fall as rain.
READ further from the source above
Keywords
climate change
deforestation
forests
land degradation
carbon uptake
facts and figures
food security
water security