Tag: Carbon sinks

Counting on … 187

14th November 2025

Not only have humans been adding excessive amounts of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere (largely though burning fossil fuels), we have also been destroying the Earth’s own ways of absorbing carbon dioxide. Two of the main ‘carbon sinks’ (as they are known) are forests, especially rain forests, and oceans. 

Loss of rainforest in the Amazon continues to increase due to deforestation (principally clearing tree to grow other crops) and wild fires (which are increasing as temperatures rise and as droughts become more severe). (1) 

It is sad to report that in the leaders’ summit in advance of COP30, the UK government determined not to help fund the Tropical Forests Forever Fund (TFFF). The TFFF aim is to raise $25 billion from developed countries attending COP30, which will underpin a $125 billion fund (p rest coming from private investors)  to protect rainforests on both the Amazon and Congo. (3) 

Oceans loose their ability to absorb carbon dioxide as they heat (warm water absorbs less CO2) (2) 

 and as  flora and fauna are removed (from whales to sea grass) and from bottom trawling and mining which release previously absorbed CO2. (4)

To an extended protection of the oceans already exists via the 30 by 30  Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) where signatories agreed to protect and enhance the biodiversity of 30% of land and sea by 2030. (5) This will hopefully be further extended to include international waters that lie outside those waters controlled by individual nations  with the High Seas Treaty. (6) 

(1) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/06/climate-strikes-the-amazon-undermining-protection-efforts/

(2) https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2025/09/04/the-ocean-carbon-sink-is-ailing/

(3) https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/nov/05/uk-opts-out-of-flagship-fund-to-protect-amazon-and-other-threatened-tropical-forests

(4) https://www.southampton.ac.uk/publicpolicy/CFloor.page

(5) https://for-the-ocean.org/event/cop30/

(6) https://highseasalliance.org/treaty-negotiations/

Counting on … day 195

18th  October 2024

Scientific concern about the adverse affects of climate change in the Earth capacity to absorb carbon dioxide, extends to the land as well as the oceans. 

“In 2023, the hottest year ever recorded, preliminary findings by an international team of researchers show the amount of carbon absorbed by land has temporarily collapsed. The final result was that forest, plants and soil – as a net category – absorbed almost no carbon…

“A paper published in July found that while the total amount of carbon absorbed by forests between 1990 and 2019 was steady, it varied substantially by region. The boreal forests – home to about a third of all carbon found on land, which stretch across Russia, Scandinavia, Canada and Alaska – have seen a sharp fall in the amount of carbon they absorb, down more than a third due to climate crisis-related beetle outbreaks, fire and clearing for timber.

“Combined with the declining resilience of the Amazon and drought conditions in parts of the tropics, the hot conditions in the northern forests helped drive the collapse of the land sink in 2023 – causing a spike in the rate of atmospheric carbon.”

This shortfall or decline in the carbon absorbing capacity of the natural world is a serious concern when we are relying on that capacity to achieve a net zero target. Indeed if this persists, we will have to reduce our human enduced carbon emissions faster and at a greater rate.