Not Just Carbon: Capturing All the Benefits of Forests for Stabilizing the Climate from Local to Global Scales

This report examines the biophysical effects of deforestation on climate stability beyond carbon sequestration, arguing that current policies undervalue forest services and fail to account for impacts on local temperatures, rainfall, and human health.

• Forests stabilize the climate through biophysical processes involving energy and moisture transfers in the atmosphere, which support water and food security, public health, and climate adaptation. When these processes are integrated with carbon cycle data, the estimated global cooling effect of preventing tropical deforestation can increase by as much as 50 percent.
• Deforestation, particularly in tropical regions, leads to increased local temperatures and disrupted rainfall patterns. These changes exacerbate the local impacts of global climate change, posing risks to agricultural productivity and human health.
• Existing policies systematically undervalue the climate services provided by forests because they ignore biophysical effects. This leads to an inadequate anticipation of climate risks and an inequitable distribution of resources and responsibilities across nations.

APA

World Resources Institute (n.d.). Not Just Carbon: Capturing All the Benefits of Forests for Stabilizing the Climate from Local to Global Scales. https://www.wri.org/research/not-just-carbon-capturing-benefits-forests-climate

Chicago

World Resources Institute. Not Just Carbon: Capturing All the Benefits of Forests for Stabilizing the Climate from Local to Global Scales. n.d. https://www.wri.org/research/not-just-carbon-capturing-benefits-forests-climate.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=Not Just Carbon: Capturing All the Benefits of Forests for Stabilizing the Climate from Local to Global Scales |url=https://www.wri.org/research/not-just-carbon-capturing-benefits-forests-climate |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitutendnot, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{Not Just Carbon: Capturing All the Benefits of Forests for Stabilizing the Climate from Local to Global Scales}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://www.wri.org/research/not-just-carbon-capturing-benefits-forests-climate}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }