Knowing which parts of Africa best help to store carbon means funding and policy efforts can be directed to protecting and increasing this carbon ‘land sink’.
Our tallest trees are world champions when it comes to capturing and storing carbon, but they don’t like the heat. Climate change will trigger mass tree deaths in Tasmania. Here’s what can be done.
Wetlands like this need protection because they absorb carbon dioxide and curb floods.
Rodger Shagam/Getty Images
Climate modelling that best accounts for the processes that sustain plant life predicts plants could absorb up to 20% more CO₂ than the simplest version predicted.
Planting trees to offset carbon is meaningless if the trees are lost to fire. A new way of understanding carbon storage based on both time and quantity stored is required to fully utilize carbon storage in climate change mitigation strategies.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
Tracking both the amount of carbon and the time that it remains stored is key to unlocking the potential of nature-based carbon storage as a climate mitigation strategy.
Smouldering fire in a drained peatland near Fort McMurray, Alta. produces smoke from underground. These ecosystems are affected by rising temperatures, drought, wildfire and various human actions including drainage.
(Leyland Cecco)
Peatlands have always had a place in art, writing and poetry. In times of global warming these cultural reflections can help open up debate about the biodiversity and climate crisis.
By adapting and applying existing policies, South Africa can protect and restore its critical ‘blue carbon’ sinks.
Professor Corneille Ewango of the University of Kisangani in a peat swamp.
along the Ikelemba River, Democratic Republic of Congo.
Bart Crezee/University of Leeds
Inoculating trees with an edible fungi can produce more protein per hectare than pasture-raised beef, while reforesting, storing carbon and restoring biodiversity.
An office building made with cross-laminated timber in Tokyo, Japan.
(Shutterstock)
As more companies feature wood and other bio-based products in their offices, what are opportunities and limitations of making corporate net-zero carbon pledges about building materials?
Severely burned forest following the devastating fire season of 2019 and 2020.
T Fairman
Climate change threatens the crucial storage of carbon in Aussie forests. Victoria’s national parks alone store almost 1 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.
Bill Hare, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
A new analysis shows almost all emissions reductions will be the result of state government policies, and will have virtually nothing to do with the federal government.
Géochronologue et paléoclimatologue, chargé de recherches CNRS - Centre de recherches pétrographiques et géochimiques (Nancy) et Laboratoire de glaciologie (Bruxelles), Université de Lorraine