Temporary Carbon Sequestration Cannot Prevent Climate Change

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Storing carbon in biosphere sinks can reduce atmospheric CO2 concentrations in the short term. However, this lowers the concentration gradient between the atmosphere and the oceans and other potential carbon reservoirs, and consequently reduces the rate of CO2 removal from the atmosphere. If carbon is released again from that temporary storage, subsequent atmospheric CO2 concentrations will, therefore, be higher than without temporary carbon storage. It is thus important to analyse whether temporary carbon storage in biosphere sinks can mitigate climate-change impacts. To analyse that, climate-change impacts need to be quantified explicitly.