A Missing Piece in Climate Models: Nature's Own Emissions
5 hours ago
- #Climate Change
- #Warming Feedbacks
- #Carbon Emissions
- Climate models often exclude or poorly represent warming-induced emissions from natural sources like wildfires, wetlands, and permafrost.
- A new study indicates these emissions could add up to 0.6°C to global warming, making it harder to meet the Paris Agreement's 2°C target.
- Warming-induced emissions are increasing due to factors like rising wildfire emissions, wetland expansion, and permafrost thaw.
- Only 5 of 11 IPCC models include wildfire emissions, and just 2 include permafrost emissions, highlighting a significant modeling gap.
- Researchers are working to integrate these emissions into models and improve monitoring in remote ecosystems like Siberia and the Congo basin.
- Strategies to address warming-induced emissions include reforestation, fuel reduction, species selection for resilience, and direct interventions like insulating permafrost.
- Efforts are underway to develop accounting frameworks and policy tools to manage these emissions as their impact becomes more evident.