World's forests failed to curb climate change in 2023: Study

Record high temperatures affected their ability to absorb carbon dioxide, it finds

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Forests and other land ecosystems failed to curb climate change in 2023 as intense drought in the Amazon rainforest and record wildfires in Canada hampered their natural ability to absorb carbon dioxide, according to a study presented on July 29.

That means a record amount of carbon dioxide entered earth's atmosphere in 2023, further feeding global warming, it said.

Plant life helps to slow climate change by taking in huge amounts of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas driving global warming. Forests and other land ecosystems on average absorb nearly a third of annual emissions from fossil fuels, industry and other human causes.

But in 2023, that carbon sink collapsed, according to study co-author Philippe Ciais of the Laboratory for Climate and Environmental Sciences (LSCE), a French research organisation.

"The sink is a pump, and we are pumping less carbon from the atmosphere into the land," he said in an interview.