Carbon sink

How it is used

Used in climate science and national inventories. Forests and oceans act as major carbon sinks, but a damaged sink can become a carbon source. Related terms are carbon sequestration, carbon storage and carbon removal. In inventories, forest sinks appear under LULUCF (land use, land-use change and forestry).

Example sentences

1. Healthy peatlands are one of the most effective carbon sinks on land.

2. Repeated wildfires could turn the forest from a carbon sink into a carbon source.

Common collocations

• natural carbon sink
• act as a carbon sink
• carbon sequestration
• forest carbon sink
• carbon removal

Related terms

• reforestationPlanting trees, or helping forests grow back naturally, on land where forest was recently cut down, burned or otherwise lost.
• deforestationThe permanent clearing of forests so that the land can be used for something else, such as farming, grazing, mining or building.
• net zeroA state in which the greenhouse gases a country or company still emits, after deep emission cuts, are balanced by the same amount being removed from the atmosphere.
• ocean acidificationThe gradual drop in the pH of seawater as oceans absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which makes it harder for corals, shellfish and plankton to build shells and skeletons.
• nature-based solutionsActions that protect, restore or sustainably manage ecosystems to tackle problems such as climate change, flooding or water shortages, while also benefiting people and biodiversity.

More terms: Emissions and Carbon

• greenhouse gas
• carbon dioxide
• emissions
• carbon footprint
• fossil fuel
• carbon neutral
• decarbonization
• carbon offset
• methane
• emission factor
• CO2e
• carbon credit