Articles | Volume 13, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-1681-2021
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-1681-2021
Review article
 | 
26 Apr 2021
Review article |  | 26 Apr 2021

Carbon emissions and removals from forests: new estimates, 1990–2020

Francesco N. Tubiello, Giulia Conchedda, Nathan Wanner, Sandro Federici, Simone Rossi, and Giacomo Grassi

Related authors

Global Carbon Budget 2024
Pierre Friedlingstein, Michael O'Sullivan, Matthew W. Jones, Robbie M. Andrew, Judith Hauck, Peter Landschützer, Corinne Le Quéré, Hongmei Li, Ingrid T. Luijkx, Are Olsen, Glen P. Peters, Wouter Peters, Julia Pongratz, Clemens Schwingshackl, Stephen Sitch, Josep G. Canadell, Philippe Ciais, Robert B. Jackson, Simone R. Alin, Almut Arneth, Vivek Arora, Nicholas R. Bates, Meike Becker, Nicolas Bellouin, Carla F. Berghoff, Henry C. Bittig, Laurent Bopp, Patricia Cadule, Katie Campbell, Matthew A. Chamberlain, Naveen Chandra, Frédéric Chevallier, Louise P. Chini, Thomas Colligan, Jeanne Decayeux, Laique M. Djeutchouang, Xinyu Dou, Carolina Duran Rojas, Kazutaka Enyo, Wiley Evans, Amanda R. Fay, Richard A. Feely, Daniel J. Ford, Adrianna Foster, Thomas Gasser, Marion Gehlen, Thanos Gkritzalis, Giacomo Grassi, Luke Gregor, Nicolas Gruber, Özgür Gürses, Ian Harris, Matthew Hefner, Jens Heinke, George C. Hurtt, Yosuke Iida, Tatiana Ilyina, Andrew R. Jacobson, Atul K. Jain, Tereza Jarníková, Annika Jersild, Fei Jiang, Zhe Jin, Etsushi Kato, Ralph F. Keeling, Kees Klein Goldewijk, Jürgen Knauer, Jan Ivar Korsbakken, Xin Lan, Siv K. Lauvset, Nathalie Lefèvre, Zhu Liu, Junjie Liu, Lei Ma, Shamil Maksyutov, Gregg Marland, Nicolas Mayot, Patrick C. McGuire, Nicolas Metzl, Natalie M. Monacci, Eric J. Morgan, Shin-Ichiro Nakaoka, Craig Neill, Yosuke Niwa, Tobias Nützel, Lea Olivier, Tsuneo Ono, Paul I. Palmer, Denis Pierrot, Zhangcai Qin, Laure Resplandy, Alizée Roobaert, Thais M. Rosan, Christian Rödenbeck, Jörg Schwinger, T. Luke Smallman, Stephen M. Smith, Reinel Sospedra-Alfonso, Tobias Steinhoff, Qing Sun, Adrienne J. Sutton, Roland Séférian, Shintaro Takao, Hiroaki Tatebe, Hanqin Tian, Bronte Tilbrook, Olivier Torres, Etienne Tourigny, Hiroyuki Tsujino, Francesco Tubiello, Guido van der Werf, Rik Wanninkhof, Xuhui Wang, Dongxu Yang, Xiaojuan Yang, Zhen Yu, Wenping Yuan, Xu Yue, Sönke Zaehle, Ning Zeng, and Jiye Zeng
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 17, 965–1039, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-965-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-965-2025, 2025
Short summary
An organic matter database (OMD): consolidating global residue data from agriculture, fisheries, forestry and related industries
Gudeta Weldesemayat Sileshi, Edmundo Barrios, Johannes Lehmann, and Francesco Nicola Tubiello
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 17, 369–391, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-369-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-369-2025, 2025
Short summary
Comparison of observation- and inventory-based methane emissions for eight large global emitters
Ana Maria Roxana Petrescu, Glen P. Peters, Richard Engelen, Sander Houweling, Dominik Brunner, Aki Tsuruta, Bradley Matthews, Prabir K. Patra, Dmitry Belikov, Rona L. Thompson, Lena Höglund-Isaksson, Wenxin Zhang, Arjo J. Segers, Giuseppe Etiope, Giancarlo Ciotoli, Philippe Peylin, Frédéric Chevallier, Tuula Aalto, Robbie M. Andrew, David Bastviken, Antoine Berchet, Grégoire Broquet, Giulia Conchedda, Stijn N. C. Dellaert, Hugo Denier van der Gon, Johannes Gütschow, Jean-Matthieu Haussaire, Ronny Lauerwald, Tiina Markkanen, Jacob C. A. van Peet, Isabelle Pison, Pierre Regnier, Espen Solum, Marko Scholze, Maria Tenkanen, Francesco N. Tubiello, Guido R. van der Werf, and John R. Worden
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 4325–4350, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-4325-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-4325-2024, 2024
Short summary
Global nitrous oxide budget (1980–2020)
Hanqin Tian, Naiqing Pan, Rona L. Thompson, Josep G. Canadell, Parvadha Suntharalingam, Pierre Regnier, Eric A. Davidson, Michael Prather, Philippe Ciais, Marilena Muntean, Shufen Pan, Wilfried Winiwarter, Sönke Zaehle, Feng Zhou, Robert B. Jackson, Hermann W. Bange, Sarah Berthet, Zihao Bian, Daniele Bianchi, Alexander F. Bouwman, Erik T. Buitenhuis, Geoffrey Dutton, Minpeng Hu, Akihiko Ito, Atul K. Jain, Aurich Jeltsch-Thömmes, Fortunat Joos, Sian Kou-Giesbrecht, Paul B. Krummel, Xin Lan, Angela Landolfi, Ronny Lauerwald, Ya Li, Chaoqun Lu, Taylor Maavara, Manfredi Manizza, Dylan B. Millet, Jens Mühle, Prabir K. Patra, Glen P. Peters, Xiaoyu Qin, Peter Raymond, Laure Resplandy, Judith A. Rosentreter, Hao Shi, Qing Sun, Daniele Tonina, Francesco N. Tubiello, Guido R. van der Werf, Nicolas Vuichard, Junjie Wang, Kelley C. Wells, Luke M. Western, Chris Wilson, Jia Yang, Yuanzhi Yao, Yongfa You, and Qing Zhu
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 2543–2604, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-2543-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-2543-2024, 2024
Short summary
Global Methane Budget 2000–2020
Marielle Saunois, Adrien Martinez, Benjamin Poulter, Zhen Zhang, Peter Raymond, Pierre Regnier, Joseph G. Canadell, Robert B. Jackson, Prabir K. Patra, Philippe Bousquet, Philippe Ciais, Edward J. Dlugokencky, Xin Lan, George H. Allen, David Bastviken, David J. Beerling, Dmitry A. Belikov, Donald R. Blake, Simona Castaldi, Monica Crippa, Bridget R. Deemer, Fraser Dennison, Giuseppe Etiope, Nicola Gedney, Lena Höglund-Isaksson, Meredith A. Holgerson, Peter O. Hopcroft, Gustaf Hugelius, Akihito Ito, Atul K. Jain, Rajesh Janardanan, Matthew S. Johnson, Thomas Kleinen, Paul Krummel, Ronny Lauerwald, Tingting Li, Xiangyu Liu, Kyle C. McDonald, Joe R. Melton, Jens Mühle, Jurek Müller, Fabiola Murguia-Flores, Yosuke Niwa, Sergio Noce, Shufen Pan, Robert J. Parker, Changhui Peng, Michel Ramonet, William J. Riley, Gerard Rocher-Ros, Judith A. Rosentreter, Motoki Sasakawa, Arjo Segers, Steven J. Smith, Emily H. Stanley, Joel Thanwerdas, Hanquin Tian, Aki Tsuruta, Francesco N. Tubiello, Thomas S. Weber, Guido van der Werf, Doug E. Worthy, Yi Xi, Yukio Yoshida, Wenxin Zhang, Bo Zheng, Qing Zhu, Qiuan Zhu, and Qianlai Zhuang
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-115,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-115, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for ESSD
Short summary

Related subject area

Biogeosciences and biodiversity
Century-long reconstruction of gridded phosphorus surplus across Europe (1850–2019)
Masooma Batool, Fanny J. Sarrazin, and Rohini Kumar
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 17, 881–916, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-881-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-881-2025, 2025
Short summary
High-resolution carbon cycling data from 2019 to 2021 measured at six Austrian long-term ecosystem research sites
Thomas Dirnböck, Michael Bahn, Eugenio Diaz-Pines, Ika Djukic, Michael Englisch, Karl Gartner, Günther Gollobich, Johannes Ingrisch, Barbara Kitzler, Karl Knaebel, Johannes Kobler, Andreas Maier, Armin Malli, Ivo Offenthaler, Johannes Peterseil, Gisela Pröll, Sarah Venier, Christoph Wohner, Sophie Zechmeister-Boltenstern, Anita Zolles, and Stephan Glatzel
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 17, 685–702, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-685-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-685-2025, 2025
Short summary
An organic matter database (OMD): consolidating global residue data from agriculture, fisheries, forestry and related industries
Gudeta Weldesemayat Sileshi, Edmundo Barrios, Johannes Lehmann, and Francesco Nicola Tubiello
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 17, 369–391, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-369-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-369-2025, 2025
Short summary
An expert survey on chamber measurement techniques for methane fluxes
Katharina Jentzsch, Lona van Delden, Matthias Fuchs, and Claire C. Treat
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-381,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-381, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for ESSD
Short summary
Gas exchange velocities (k600), gas exchange rates (K600), and hydraulic geometries for streams and rivers derived from the NEON Reaeration field and lab collection data product (DP1.20190.001)
Kelly S. Aho, Kaelin M. Cawley, Robert T. Hensley, Robert O. Hall Jr., Walter K. Dodds, and Keli J. Goodman
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 5563–5578, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-5563-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-5563-2024, 2024
Short summary

Cited articles

FAO: Global Forest Resources Assessment 2015, How are the world's forests changing? Second edition, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy, available at: http://www.fao.org/3/a-i4793e.pdf (last access: January 2021), FAO, Rome, 2016. 
FAO: Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020: Main Report, available at: http://www.fao.org/documents/card/en/c/ca9825en (last access: January 2021), FAO, Rome, 2020. 
FAO: FAOSTAT Emissions – Land Use, Forest Land, available at: http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/GF (last access: January 2021), FAO, Rome, 2021a. 
FAO: Land statistics. Global, regional and country trends, 1990–2018. FAOSTAT Analytical Brief Series No. 15. Rome, Italy. Available at: http://www.fao.org/3/cb2860en/cb2860en.pdf (last access: January 2021), FAO, Rome, 2021b. 
FAO and UN: System of Environmental-Economic Accounting for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (SEEA AFF), Rome, https://doi.org/10.4060/ca7735en, 2020. 
Download
Short summary
This paper presents the first estimates of forest carbon fluxes (1990–2020) based on the new Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA) 2020. We document for the first time in the literature forest carbon fluxes for the last decade 2011–2020. Results show that carbon losses from net forest conversion (3.1 billion tonnes of CO2) were counterbalanced by carbon gains on forest land (−3.3 billion tonnes of CO2), resulting in the world's forests acting overall as a small carbon sink in the past decade.
Share
Altmetrics
Final-revised paper
Preprint