Countries are cheating their way to net zero by overrelying on forests
Story by Madeleine Cuff • 19h
By Madeleine Cuff
Countries are taking a shortcut to net-zero emissions by including forests and other “passive” carbon sinks in their climate plans, in a tactic that will thwart global efforts to halt climate change, leading researchers have warned.
Relying on natural carbon sinks to soak up ongoing carbon emissions from human activity will condemn the world to continued warming. That is according to the researchers who first developed the science behind net-zero emissions, and who have today launched a highly unusual intervention to call out nations and companies for misusing the concept.
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“This paper is a call to clarify to people what was originally meant by net zero,” Myles Allen at the University of Oxford told a press briefing on 14 November.
Natural sinks such as forests and peat bogs play a vital role in Earth's natural carbon cycle by absorbing some of the carbon in the atmosphere. But existing sinks cannot be relied upon to offset ongoing greenhouse gas emissions.
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