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Forest emissions and removals

Global, regional and country trends 1990–2025













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FAO. 2025. Forest emissions and removals – Global, regional and country trends 1990–2025.FAOSTAT Analytical Briefs, No. 114. Rome.



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    Carbon emissions and removals from forests: new estimates, 1990–2020 2021
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    National, regional and global CO2 emissions and removals from forests were estimated for the period 1990–2020 using as input the country reports of the Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020. The new Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates, based on a simple carbon stock change approach, update published information on net emissions and removals from forests in relation to (a) net forest conversion and (b) forest land. Results show a significant reduction in global emissions from net forest conversion over the study period, from a mean of 4.3 in 1991–2000 to 2.9 Gt CO2 yr−1 in 2016–2020. At the same time, forest land was a significant carbon sink globally but decreased in strength over the study period, from −3.5 to −2.6 Gt CO2 yr−1. Combining net forest conversion with forest land, our estimates indicated that globally forests were a small net source of CO2 to the atmosphere on average during 1990–2020, with mean net emissions of 0.4 Gt CO2 yr−1. The exception was the brief period 2011–2015, when forest land removals counterbalanced emissions from net forest conversion, resulting in a global net sink of −0.7 Gt CO2 yr−1. Importantly, the new estimates allow for the first time in the literature the characterization of forest emissions and removals for the decade just concluded, 2011–2020, showing that in this period the net contribution of forests to the atmosphere was very small, i.e., a sink of less than −0.2 Gt CO2 yr−1 – an estimate not yet reported in the literature. This near-zero balance was nonetheless the result of large global fluxes of opposite sign, namely net forest conversion emissions of 3.1 Gt CO2 yr−1 counterbalanced by net removals on forest land of −3.3 Gt CO2 yr−1. Finally, we compared our estimates with data independently reported by countries to the United Nations Framework on Climate Change, indicating close agreement between FAO and country emissions and removals estimates. Data from this study are openly available via the Zenodo portal (Tubiello, 2020), with DOI https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3941973, as well as in the FAOSTAT (Food and Agriculture Organization Corporate Statistical Database) emissions database (FAO, 2021a).
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    Technical study
    Forest land emissions and removals
    Global, regional and country trends, 1990–2020
    2020
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    The FAOSTAT Land Emissions-Forest Land domain contains information on emissions and removals of CO2 from forest land use dynamics. The domain contains information for 214 countries and territories, providing estimates of net emissions to the atmosphere from forests, comprised of emissions from deforestation and emissions/removals on remaining forest land for the period 1990-2020. Statistics of forest land area and biomass stock are collected from countries, analysed and disseminated by FAO in five-year cycles through the Forest Resources Assessment (FRA).
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    Booklet
    Corporate general interest
    Greenhouse gas emissions from agrifood systems
    Global, regional and country trends, 2000–2022
    2024
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    Agrifood systems account for about one-third of total anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. They are generated within the farm gate, from crop and livestock production activities; by land-use change, caused by deforestation, biomass fires and peatland degradation processes often linked to land clearance for agriculture; and in pre- and post-production processes, comprising the supply chain including food manufacturing, retail, household consumption and food disposal. According to the latest data, global agrifood systems emissions reached 16.2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (Gt CO2eq) in 2022, virtually unchanged from 2021, and representing an increase of 10 percent since 2000.

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