UPTAKE Webinar
10 December 2025, h. 14:00 CET
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The UPTAKE monthly webinar series returns, continuing its engaging discussions on carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies and the latest research developments. The next session in the series, dedicated to recent publications on CDR research, will focus on the paper Biodiversity Implications of Land-Intensive Carbon Dioxide Removal.

Speaker: Ruben Prutz, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK)

Moderator: Sabine Fuss, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK)

Pathways aligned with global climate goals typically rely on deploying billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) through land-intensive approaches such as forestation and bioenergy with carbon capture and storage. However, using these methods at large scale can pose risks to biodiversity. In this study, scenarios from five integrated assessment models are examined, showing that pathways consistent with limiting warming to 1.5 °C dedicate as much as 13% of global areas of high biodiversity importance to land-intensive CDR. These overlaps are unevenly distributed, with a greater share occurring in low- and middle-income countries. Recognizing potential conflicts between climate action and biodiversity conservation is essential. An illustrative analysis suggests that if today’s biodiversity hotspots were shielded from land-use change, more than half of the land assigned to forestation and BECCS in the assessed scenarios would no longer be available, unless synergies between climate and conservation goals are leveraged. The results also indicate biodiversity benefits from CDR associated with avoided warming.