Climate change accelerating with natural carbon storage decline

The natural process of locking away carbon dioxide (CO2) appears to be in decline – and climate change will accelerate as a result, a University of Strathclyde study warns.

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Researchers found that the levels of CO2 retained in vegetation through this process, which is known as sequestration, had been increasing at 0.8 per cent per year in the 1960s but peaked in 2008 and are now falling at 0.25 per cent per year.

If its growth rate of the 1960s had continued, natural sequestration would have increased by 50 per cent from 1960 to 2010 but if its current rate of decline continues, it will have reduced by half in 250 years.

Cancelling out

Sequestration offsets some of the emissions generated by human activity, which have recently been increasing by around 1.2 per cent a year. Cancelling this out would require these emissions to fall by 0.3 per cent annually – equivalent to around 100 million tonnes of CO2.