European forests

Europe’s forests play a crucial role in removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Forests cover around 40% of the EU’s land and, between 1990 and 2022, absorbed roughly 10% of the bloc’s greenhouse gas emissions from human activity. But this natural carbon sink is shrinking, reducing its ability to remove carbon from the atmosphere.

The decline of carbon dioxide absorption is mainly as a result of increased harvesting of wood and lower sequestration of carbon by ageing forests. It is also driven by more frequent droughts, heatwaves, disruptive events such as insect outbreaks, wildfires and plant disease.