Are carbon sinks on the brink of collapse?

We rely heavily on nature to curb the impacts of the climate crisis. Carbon sinks like the Amazon rainforest, which stored 56.8 billion metric tons of carbon in 2022, help towards the 1.5-degree target and support the nationally determined contributions (NDCs) of the countries that house them, for better or worse.  

But what would happen if these systems started to collapse and stopped absorbing emissions?  

Some scientists warn that policymakers have long underestimated the possibility of natural sinks reaching a critical breaking point.  

In this GLF Live, we will explore whether nature and its ecosystems are still healthy, the role of land ecosystems in carbon capture and storage, and what solutions the upcoming UN Conference to Combat Desertification (COP16) could bring.  

Join us on 27 November at 14:00 UTC for this GLF Live with Ane Costa Alencar, science director at IPAM, and Daniel Murdiyarso, climate change, energy and low carbon development principal scientist at CIFOR-ICRAF. 

Ane Auxiliadora Costa Alencar is the science director at IPAM. She has a bachelor’s degree in geography from UFPA (Federal University of Pará), a master’s degree in remote rsensing from Boston University and a doctorate in Forest Resources and Conservation from the University of Florida.

Daniel Murdiyarso currently holds a position as a principal scientist with CIFOR-ICRAF. He is a professor at the Department of Geophysics and Meteorology, IPB. His research works are related to land use change and biogeochemical cycles, and climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Murdiyarso played an extensive role in the Nobel Peace Prize-winning IPCC when he was a Convening Lead Author of the IPCC Third Assessment Report and the IPCC Special Report on Land use, Land use Change and Forestry. Since 2002, Murdiyarso has been a member of the Indonesian Academy of Sciences.