Forests Still Better than Carbon Storage Technology in Reducing CO2

Replacing forests with crops to be used for carbon capture technology may not be the best option, study says. Biomass Energy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) is one of the technologies used to mitigate carbon emissions. It involves growing energy crops that can absorb carbon and can be later used to fuel power plants. The resulting CO2 from this process will then be stored underground, unable to enter the atmosphere. The caveat is that creating BECCS requires a big landmass, resulting in deforestation. However, University of Exeter [EK-si-ter] researchers found that maintaining forests can better keep CO2 levels at bay instead of clearing them to accommodate large-scale BECCS. This is after they used a digital model of the world’s vegetation and exposed it to different land-use changes required to stabilize global warming within a prescribed limit. They discovered that BECCS can reduce CO2 in some regions but not in areas with mature forests that already store CO2. Burning or clearing these mature forests would facilitate the release of stored CO2 into the atmosphere. Therefore, the researchers recommend protecting and regenerating forests instead of clearing them in several areas. Currently, forests cover only about 31% of the world’s land. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations’ recent report cited agriculture as the main reason for deforestation because trees are removed to accommodate growing crops. The report also found that less than 50% of the 35 examined countries address deforestation. But there is an urgent need for these countries to grapple with this problem in light of international treaties that aim to deal with climate change.