CO2 emissions from deforestation have slowed up by 27 %

November 29, 2010 by timbercommunity

Researchers learned that CO2 emissions from deforestation have slowed by 27% since 2000 compared to the 1990s. This is primarly because the rate at which tropical rainforests in countries like Indonesia and Brazil are being  cut down has slowed down; and strategies to encourage tree planting in Europe and Asia have helped provide a carbon sink so called because trees absorb CO2.

For the first time, forest expansion in temperate latitudes has overcompensated deforestation emissions and caused a small net sink of CO2 since 2000 outside the tropics,' explains the study's co-author, Professor Corinne Le Qur from the British Antarctic Survey and the University of East Anglia.

In a paper published in Nature Geoscience, the authors found that despite the global financial crisis that hit the world last year, global CO₂ emissions from the burning of fossil fuel in 2009 were only 1.3 per cent below the record 2008 figures. This is less than half the drop predicted a year ago.

The worldwide financial crisis severely affected western economies, leading to huge reductions in CO2 emissions. For example, UK emissions were 8.6 % lower in 2009 than in 2008. Similar figures apply to USA, Germany, France, Japan and most other industrialised nations. However, emerging economies had a solid economic performance despite the financial crisis, and recorded significant increases in CO2 emissions (e.g. China +8 per cent, India +6.2 per cent).