Constraints and enablers for increasing carbon storage in the terrestrial biosphere
| Nature Reviews Earth & Environment | 2021 | Peer Reviewed | Review | https://www.nature.com/articles/s43017-021-00166-8Abstract
Harnessing nature-based climate solutions (NbCS) to help simultaneously achieve climate and conservation goals is an attractive win-win. The contribution of NbCS to climate action relies on both biogeochemical potential and the ability to overcome environmental, economic and governance constraints for implementation. As such, estimates of additional NbCS-related terrestrial biosphere storage potential range from less than 100 GtCO2 to more than 800 GtCO2. In this Review, we assess the negative emissions contributions of NbCS — including reforestation, improved forest management and soil carbon sequestration — alongside their environmental, social and governance constraints. Given near-term implementation challenges and long-term biogeochemical constraints, a reasonable value for the expected impact of NbCS is up to 100–200 GtCO2 in negative emissions for the remainder of the twenty-first century. To sustainably reach this level, focus should be on projects with clear co-benefits, and must not come at the expense of a reduction in emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, rapid decarbonization and innovation from alternative negative emissions technologies.
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