Climate Action Network Europe / Forests and Climate Change

Introduction | What are Carbon Sinks | CAN-E Position Papers/Links

What are carbon sinks?
Because trees absorb carbon dioxide it has been suggested that planting new forests (reforestation) would be an effective tool to address climate change. The Kyoto Protocol’s flexible mechanisms state that, every tonne of carbon dioxide that is absorbed from the atmosphere by forests (so-called carbon sinks) - in forestry and agricultural activities - permits a country to emit an additional tonne of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels.

Environmentalists have pointed out that the use of carbon sinks is a loophole in the Kyoto Protocol. The use of carbon sinks means that developed countries reduce less industrial emissions domestically because they rely on offsetting their emissions through credits from forests. This reliance on forests has some severe consequences because forests only store carbon temporarily - releasing it back to the atmosphere when trees die naturally or through catastrophic events such as fires. It is also difficult to measure the amount of carbon a forest is storing.

Most sinks projects are large-scale, low-costs plantations which produce no long-term climate benefits and have no sustainable development advantage. They also undermine the incentives for technology transfer. Unfortunately, the natural global carbon sinks, forests are declining. As the climate changes, it is likely that some of these sinks may become sources of greenhouse emissions releasing more carbon into the atmosphere.

A study in 2005 found that during July and August 2003, around 500 million tonnes of carbon escaped from western Europe’s forests and fields as crops shrivelled, soils desiccated and trees burnt.

CAN Europe believes that countries need to reduce their industrial emissions as a first priority before relying on sinks projects.
We also want to see an end to deforestation and the introduction of ecologically-based reforestation.

No sinks in the EU ETS
The EU ETS linking directive allows EU countries to link to the Kyoto Protocol’s flexible mechanisms. However sinks and nuclear projects have been excluded from the scheme. Some organisations are pushing for sinks projects to be included in the next round of the EU ETS. CAN Europe believes that the reasons these projects were excluded still remain valid today and countries must first reduce emissions from industrial activities. If sinks projects were included it would result in overall emissions to the atmosphere being higher than they would otherwise have been.

See also the European Commission working paper on this issue. Impact Assessment on the Commission proposal for a Directive amending the Directive establishing a scheme for greenhouse gas emission allowance trading within the Community, in respect of the Kyoto Protocol's project mechanisms