Groundbreaking new research warns that Africa’s forests, once vital allies in the fight against climate change, have turned from a carbon sink into a carbon source.
Groundbreaking new research warns that Africa’s forests, once vital allies in the fight against climate change, have turned from a carbon sink into a carbon source.
A new international study published in Scientific Reports and led by researchers at the National Centre for Earth Observation at the Universities of Leicester, Sheffield and Edinburgh reveals that Africa’s forests, which have long absorbed carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, are now releasing more carbon than they remove.
This alarming shift, which happened after 2010, underscores the urgent need for stronger global action to protect forests, a major focus of the COP30 Climate Summit that concluded last week in Brazil.
Read more at: University of Leicester
Professor Heiko Balzter, Dr Nezha Acil and University of Leicester colleagues at a zoobotanical garden at the Museu Emilio Goeldi in Belém, with trees and animals from the Amazon. (Photo Credit: University of Leicester)
