Biodiversity implications of land-intensive carbon dioxide removal
Abstract Pathways consistent with global climate objectives typically deploy billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) from land-intensive methods such as forestation and bioenergy with carbon capture and storage. Such large-scale deployment of land-intensive CDR may have negative consequences for biodiversity. Here we assess scenarios across five integrated assessment models and show that scenarios consistent with limiting warming to 1.5 °C allocate up to 13% of global areas of high biodiversity importance for land-intensive CDR. These overlaps are distributed unevenly, with higher shares in low- and middle-income countries. Understanding the potential conflicts between climate action and biodiversity conservation is crucial. An illustrative analysis shows that if current biodiversity hotspots were protected from land-use change, over half the land allocated for forestation and bioenergy with carbon capture and storage in the assessed scenarios would be unavailable unless synergies between climate and conservation goals are leveraged. Our analysis also indicates CDR-related biodiversity benefits due to avoided warming.
Authors
- Gaurav Ganti (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6638-4076)
- Jonathan Doelman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6842-573X)
- Rachel Warren (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0122-1599)
- Ruben Prütz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3345-9083)
- Joeri Rogelj
- Yazhen Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6869-8327)
- Petr Havlík
- Florian Humpenöder (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2927-9407)
- Nicole Forstenhäusler (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0474-7959)
- Michael Wögerer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1990-841X)
- Alex Popp
- Stefan Frank
- Andrey Lessa Derci Augustynczik
- Vassilis Daioglou
- Sabine Fuss
- Tomoko Hasegawa
- Tamás Krisztin
- Jeff Price
- Florian Kraxner
Institutions
- University of Kassel (DE)
- University of East Anglia (GB)
- International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (AT)
- Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (NL)
- Ritsumeikan University (JP)
- Utrecht University (NL)
- National Institute for Environmental Studies (JP)
- Kyoto University (JP)
- Leibniz Association (DE)
- Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (DE)
- Tyndall Centre (GB)
- Imperial College London (GB)
- Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (DE)
- BOKU University (AT)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Climate Change
- Published
- 2026-01-30
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-026-02557-5
- Primary Topic
- Carbon Dioxide Capture Technologies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- European Commission
- Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
- International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis
- HORIZON EUROPE Framework Programme