Forests and farmlands cannot be relied on to soak up greenhouse gases, and cuts in emissions are the only long-term way to reduce global warming, scientists say in a report released by Britain's Royal Society yesterday.
They say too little is known about how much farmlands and forests - so-called carbon sinks - can absorb carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, from the atmosphere.
Carbon sinks will be a major issue in Bonn next week, when environmentalists and policymakers resume international climate talks, which have been jeopardised by the withdrawal of the United States from the Kyoto agreement on global warming.
"These carbon sinks are of rather limited size and also will only work for a relatively short duration, a few decades. They can't make a major contribution to reducing carbon emissions and solving the global warming problem," says Professor John Shepherd, an author of the report.
- REUTERS
