Carbon prospecting in tropical forests for climate change mitigation.

ABSTRACT: Carbon finance projects that protect tropical forests could support both nature conservation and climate change mitigation goals. Global demand for nature-based carbon credits is outpacing their supply, due partly to gaps in knowledge needed to inform and prioritize investment decisions. Here, we show that at current carbon market prices the protection of tropical forests can generate investible carbon amounting to 1.8 (±1.1) GtCO₂e yr^-1 globally. We further show that financially viable carbon projects could generate return-on-investment amounting to $46.0b y^-1 in net present value (Asia-Pacific: $24.6b y^-1; Americas: $19.1b y^-1; Africa: $2.4b y^-1). However, we also find that ~80% (1.24 billion ha) of forest carbon sites wou

SUBMITTER: Koh LP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7904812 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature