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12 December 2025

Revised estimates of CO₂ sources and sinks improve global carbon accounting

Updated estimates of the worldwide sources and sinks of anthropogenic carbon dioxide provide a firmer basis for monitoring climate action.

Galen A. McKinley⁰

Galen A. McKinley
1. Galen A. McKinley is in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, and at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University New York, New York 10027, USA.
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Emissions of carbon dioxide produced by human activities, such as burning fossil fuels and deforestation, are the main cause of global climate change. Fortunately, only about half of these CO₂ emissions remain in the atmosphere; the remainder are taken up by the ocean and the terrestrial biosphere. However, for many years, scientists’ mean estimates for the global sources and sinks of anthropogenic CO₂ have not precisely matched the observed rate of increase in atmospheric CO₂ levels.Writing in Nature, Friedlingsteinet al.¹ re-evaluate these estimates, making adjustments that balance the global carbon budget — increasing confidence that this approach can be used to track trends in Earth’s carbon cycle.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-03981-x

References

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Competing Interests

G.A.M is a co-author of the 2025 and 2023 Global Carbon Budgets.

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