Carbon sinks: The good and the bad

The oceans have caught the attention of climate policymakers, but many of their ideas are too radical

After years of focusing on clean fuels for reducing emissions, the climate conversation is beginning to focus on carbon sinks — or ways to absorb and sequester carbon emissions from the atmosphere. And as with any emission conversation, bad ideas are being advocated as strongly as the good ones.

Briefly, carbon sinks can be both natural and artificial, though artificial carbon sinks are relatively few compared to natural ones. Natural carbon sinks are forests and oceans, which together are estimated to remove as much as 56 per cent of the carbon emitted by humans. Of this, land forests account for roughly