DOI: 10.62796/pijst.2024v1i7007

  DOI URL: https://doi.org/10.62796/pijst.2024v1i7007

Abstract- The ability of climate to remain stable relies on two related strategies, one being the rapid decline of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the other being the elimination of excess CO2 in the atmosphere. The second approach relies on the idea of carbon sequestration, it is the process of capturing and storing carbon within soils, vegetation, lakes and artificially created storage areas. Natural solutions (forests, soils, wetlands, and coastal habitats) and technological solutions (bioenergy with carbon capture and storage, direct air capture, enhanced rock weathering) will both be required to remove gigatons of CO2 per year, should the world meet its ambitious temperature goals in the next few decades. In addition to climate mitigation, sequestration activities typically have co-benefits to biodiversity, water management, and local livelihoods, but entail trade-offs and governance issues: permanence, measurement and verification, leakage, land-use competition, social equity, and costs. This paper represents a thorough and balanced introduction to the science and practice of carbon sequestration and GHG reduction. It outlines the key sequestration processes, the technologies and metrical tools which can be deployed to achieve them, how policy and market activities can be used to scale up the action, the key risks and governance issues to which research and public policy can be oriented to take responsible, just, and effective action, and where research and policy could be channelled. Its purpose is to provide a realistic synthesis to enable decision-makers, researchers, and practitioners to rely on sequestration as part of coherent climate action.