New York, Aug 11(ANI): A new research has shown that the world's forests absorb 2.4 billion tonnes of carbon per year from the atmosphere which is equivalent to a third of the current annual fossil fuel emissions.
This is the first research that clearly identifies the exact volume of the greenhouse gases absorbed by tropical, temperate and boreal forests from the atmosphere.
"This is really a timely breakthrough with which we can now clearly demonstrate how forests and changes in landscape such as wildfire or forest regrowth impact the removal or release of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2)," Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) co-author Dr. Pep Canadell said.
"What this research tells us is that forests play a much larger role as carbon sinks as a result of tree growth and forest expansion," he added.
Dr Canadell said the research team combined data from forest inventories, models and satellites to prove their theory.
"This is really a timely breakthrough with which we can now clearly demonstrate how forests and changes in landscape such as wildfire or forest re- growth impact the removal or release of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2)," he said.
According to him, the research has shown that emissions from deforestation are much larger than previously thought, and thus the benefits of reducing deforestation through the United Nations-backed Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) scheme, would be much larger as previously perceived.
The research work was a part of the Australian Climate Change Science Program, funded jointly by the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, the Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO. (ANI)
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