Protecting irrecoverable carbon in Earth’s ecosystems
Ecosystems like peatlands, mangroves, and old-growth forests store 260 Gt of irrecoverable carbon that, once lost, cannot be regained in time to avoid climate impacts. Safeguarding these carbon pools through targeted policies and finance is critical to achieving global climate goals.
Subject Tags
- Climate impacts
- Forest
- Climate mitigation
Abstract
Avoiding catastrophic climate change requires rapid decarbonization and improved ecosystem stewardship. To achieve the latter, ecosystems should be prioritized by responsiveness to direct, localized action and the magnitude and recoverability of their carbon stores. Here, we show that a range of ecosystems contain ‘irrecoverable carbon’ that is vulnerable to release upon land use conversion and, once lost, is not recoverable on timescales relevant to avoiding dangerous climate impacts. Globally, ecosystems highly affected by human land-use decisions contain at least 260 Gt of irrecoverable carbon, with particularly high densities in peatlands, mangroves, old-growth forests and marshes. To achieve climate goals, we must safeguard these irrecoverable carbon pools through an expanded set of policy and finance strategies.
Citation
Goldstein, A., Turner, W.R., Spawn, S.A., Anderson-Teixeira, K.J., Cook-Patton, S., Fargione, J., Gibbs, H.K., Griscom, B., Hewson, J.H., Howard, J.F. and Ledezma, J.C., 2020. Protecting irrecoverable carbon in Earth’s ecosystems. Nature Climate Change, 10(4), pp.287-295.
Media Contacts
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Joseph E. Fargione
Dir of Science, N Amer Region North America Office
The Nature Conservancy
Email: jfargione@tnc.org -
Susan Cook-Patton
Lead Reforestation Scientist Tackle Climate Change
The Nature Conservancy
Email: susan.cook-patton@tnc.org