The role of forests for climate change mitigation

Forests play a vital role in regulating carbon dioxide levels in our atmosphere. Forests accumulate and store large amounts of carbon in the trees and in the soil as they remove CO2 from the atmosphere and emit greenhouse gases by harvest, decay, or disturbances.

Forests act as a carbon sink, when the uptake, or removal of carbon from the atmosphere, exceeds the amount of carbon released. Forests are considered sources when they emit more than they remove.

TOTAL EMISSIONS IN EU27 IN 2020

TOTAL FOREST CARBON STOCK IN EU27 IN 2020