Friday, March 29, 2024 | Ramadan 18, 1445 H
clear sky
weather
OMAN
25°C / 25°C
EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Transform land use to hit 1.5 Celsius target, say experts

minus
plus

PARIS: Better management of the world’s farms and forests could contribute up to a third of the emissions cuts needed to stave off devastating climate change, an international team of scientists said on Monday.


They said that countries such as Brazil, China and Indonesia had immense potential to lower greenhouse gas emissions if their governments committed to ending deforestation and environmentally damaging farming practices.


The team also said that the world’s chances of avoiding the worst effects of climate change would be significantly boosted if one in five people in developed countries switched to plant-based diets by 2030. The land sector currently contributes around a quarter of all manmade emissions, which need slashing globally in order to limit temperature rises to 1.5 Celsius — the most ambitious target of the Paris deal on climate change.


At the same time, trees, plants and soil suck in vast amounts of carbon dioxide through photosynthesis — if given the chance. Authors of a comprehensive study on how to use land to tackle climate change said they had a plan to make the land sector carbon neutral by 2040.


“We developed a roadmap that cuts land sector emissions by about 50 per cent per decade, and increases the carbon sequestered in land about ten-fold between 2030-2050,” Stephanie Roe, an environmental scientist at the University of Virginia, said. — AFP


SHARE ARTICLE
arrow up
home icon