Articles | Volume 20, issue 10
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-1863-2023
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-1863-2023
Research article
 | 
23 May 2023
Research article |  | 23 May 2023

A comparison of the climate and carbon cycle effects of carbon removal by afforestation and an equivalent reduction in fossil fuel emissions

Koramanghat Unnikrishnan Jayakrishnan and Govindasamy Bala

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Alfieri, L., Burek, P., Feyen, L., and Forzieri, G.: Global warming increases the frequency of river floods in Europe, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 19, 2247–2260, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-19-2247-2015, 2015. 
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Allan, R. P. and Soden, B. J.: Atmospheric warming and the amplification of precipitation extremes, Science (80-), 321, 1481–1484, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1160787, 2008. 
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Afforestation and reducing fossil fuel emissions are two important mitigation strategies to reduce the amount of global warming. Our work shows that reducing fossil fuel emissions is relatively more effective than afforestation for the same amount of carbon removed from the atmosphere. However, understanding of the processes that govern the biophysical effects of afforestation should be improved before considering our results for climate policy.
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