The land’s ability to store carbon has bounced back after two bad years — SkimNews
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- The land carbon sink absorbed 2.36 gigatonnes of carbon in 2025, a rebound of 0.71 gigatonnes above the 2015-2022 average that reversed the dramatic two-year collapse tracked by researchers.
- Philippe Ciais at France's Climate and Environment Sciences Laboratory led the analysis, calling the 2023-2024 decline — driven by El Niño and Amazon fires — an "almost cancellation" of the global land sink.
- Tropical forests in Africa and the Amazon drove the 2025 recovery as more normal climate conditions restored plant carbon uptake capacity.
- A super El Niño already forming in the Pacific is expected to become the most intense in history later this year, with researchers anticipating another sharp slump in land carbon uptake as heat and drought hit the Amazon.
- The land carbon sink is already 25% smaller than it would have been without climate change and natural variability, researchers estimate.
- Mike O'Sullivan at the University of Exeter warns the rebound shows short-term resilience but no evidence the land can sustain long-term resilience to climate change; the biosphere could shift from carbon sink to source within decades without emissions cuts.
Why it matters: The 2.36-gigatonne 2025 rebound offers a one-year reprieve from a two-year collapse, but researchers estimate the land carbon sink is already 25% smaller than it would have been without climate change. With a stronger super El Niño forecast later this year and the sink showing only short-term resilience, more CO2 is likely to stay in the atmosphere each time extreme events recur.
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