Boosting nature’s capacity for carbon drawdown: An integrated approach

Abstract

Carbon cannot be erased; we are simply moving it from one storage pool to another. Biomass serves as a carbon reservoir through which carbon cycles. Over time and at scale, the working forests, the earth’s most powerful climate regulator and home to a mosaic of vigorously growing trees, sequester atmospheric CO₂ at impressive rates through their harvesting-regrowing cycle. Biomass-derived products extend carbon storage beyond the forests’ capacity in the forms of thousands of consumer products in daily lives, like our furniture and houses. The more we use and recycle these nature-based, carbon-storing materials, the less dependent we are on carbon-intensive fossil products.