The ability of forests to act as carbon sinks is rapidly declining owing to increasing natural and anthropogenic pressures, threatening the EU’s climate goals and calling for prompt action.

This is a thesis of a paper published in Nature by the European Union’s Joint Research Centre and reporting a decrease in the average forest carbon sink of 27% between 2020-2022 as compared with the period 2010-2014.

The European Union’s 2050 zero emissions targets assume that forests will absorb significant quantities of CO₂ to counteract industrial pollution. The declining trend in their ability to do so calls these targets into question. This is especially true given that data documented in the European Environmental Agency’s EU greenhouse gas inventory presents an even worse picture in 2025, with a much stronger decline of the sink in the period.

The research investigates the drivers of the decline in carbon sink and looks for the most effective ways to reduce their impact. Cutting greenhouse gas emissions remains the most important strategy to mitigate the effects of climate change. However, it is also important to modify tree harvesting regimes and rethink forest management to enhance resilience to climate change and weather extremes.

Furthermore, better and more timely data on carbon pools and forest health are essential to developing policies and practical measures to reverse this worrying trend.

The study calls for integrated policies that address both climate and environmental goals and presents a research roadmap to guide these policy decisions. By pairing timely regulations with incentives for sustainable practices, the EU can still reverse the decline of its forest carbon sink and preserve its expected contribution to climate neutrality by 2050.

Read the full study.