The Eliasch Review

The Eliasch Review is an independent review, led by the Office of Climate Change, which has reported to the Prime Minister on the role international finance could play in preserving global forests, to tackle climate change.

Met Office contribution to the review

Met Office Hadley Centre research into the impacts of climate change provided much of the scientific input into the Eliasch Review. We provided information on:

• The historical impacts of forest activities
• Forest carbon sinks
• Future projections of deforestation
• Future projections of the impacts of climate change on forests
• Future projections of the loss of the forest carbon sink
• Further effects of forest cover on climate change

Highlights of Met Office findings

• The forestry sector is the third largest contributor of global greenhouse emissions, and is a larger emitter than the transport sector
• Net deforestation has contributed between 22% and 43% of the historical CO2 rise
• The historical rise in CO2 could have been 10% faster without the tropical forest
• Climate change itself may remove the forest carbon sink in some tropical areas by the end of the 21st century, but deforestation is a more immediate threat
• Forest degradation may increase the likelihood of climate-carbon feedbacks accelerating rises in CO2
• As well as emitting CO2, tropical deforestation exerts an additional warming effect by reducing evaporation and cloud cover
• Large-scale deforestation is expected to reduce regional precipitation.

Download the full report (PDF, 6.3 Mb)

Forests and emissions: A contribution to the Eliasch Review.