Africa’s forests have switched from absorbing to emitting carbon, new study finds

https://phys.org/news/2025-11-africa-forests-absorbing-emitting-carbon.html

6 Comments

  1. A new international study published in Scientific Reports and led by researchers at the National Center for Earth Observation at the Universities of Leicester, Sheffield and Edinburgh reveals that Africa’s forests, which have long absorbed carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, are now releasing more carbon than they remove.

    This alarming shift, which happened after 2010, underscores the urgent need for stronger global action to protect forests, a major focus of the COP30 Climate Summit that concluded last week in Brazil.

  2. The wording here is very obtuse, it’s not like Africa’s trees have started farting out carbon.

  3. Apprehensive-Let3348 on

    Sorry, correct me if I’m wrong here, but–is this not just saying that deforestation in Africa has increased as the continent develops?

    I get that it may be an environmental concern, but it kinda feels like they’re arguing for slowing or stopping the growth of developing African societies…