MacIsaac et al. (2026): Imbalances in climate outcomes in net-zero pathways with fossil fuel CO₂ emissions and reforestation-based CO₂ removals
Alexander J. MacIsaac, Kirsten Zickfeld, Pierre Etienne Banville and H. Damon Matthews, IN: Communications Earth & Environment, https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-026-03329-x
Reforestation is considered an important nature-based climate solution to help achieve net-zero CO₂ emissions. However, strategies using reforestation-based CO₂ removal to offset fossil fuel emissions may not lead to the same climate outcome as avoiding the fossil fuel emissions. Here, the authors use an Earth System model of intermediate complexity to compare the climate outcome of different pathways: a reference pathway, and net-zero pathways where additional fossil fuel CO₂ emissions relative to the reference pathway are balanced by reforestation-based CO₂ removals (“Reforestation Net-zero pathways”).