Comment les marchés du carbone sous- estiment-ils systématiquement les bénéfices pour le climat des forêts tropicales

The report contends that carbon markets focus exclusively on greenhouse gas emissions, ignoring four key biophysical processes—albedo, evapotranspiration, surface roughness, and aerosols—that allow tropical forests to cool the planet. This omission leads to a significant underestimation of the climate mitigation potential of tropical forests, which the authors claim contribute 50% more to global warming prevention than carbon alone. The document highlights that conservative risk-management standards (such as additionality and leakage tests) further penalize tropical forest credits, particularly in High Forest Low Deforestation (HFLD) countries. It proposes that these non-carbon benefits be treated as additional attributes for pricing or eventually quantified as CO2 equivalents to ensure a more equitable transition for indigenous peoples and local communities.

• Tropical forests influence the climate through four primary non-carbon biophysical processes: albedo (solar energy reflection), evapotranspiration (cooling via moisture release), surface roughness (wind turbulence that lifts heat and moisture), and aerosols (particles that interact with the atmosphere and clouds).
• On a global scale, the impact of tropical deforestation on planetary warming is 50% higher than what is accounted for by carbon emissions alone.
• Deforestation has severe regional and local climate impacts: it can reduce rainfall across national borders (e.g., Brazilian Amazon deforestation affecting Bolivia, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Argentina) and cause local temperature spikes of up to 7.6°C during peak hours, compared to a global average increase of 1°C.
• Current carbon market standards use conservative thresholds and deductions for risks like non-additionality, uncertainty, and leakage, which can unfairly exclude High Forest Low Deforestation (HFLD) jurisdictions and indigenous territories from financing.
• Ignoring biophysical cooling effects leads to a systematic underestimation of mitigation potential; if a 50% planetary cooling bonus were applied, tropical forest preservation could provide an additional 1.4 to 1.8 gigatonnes of CO2 mitigation annually, roughly equivalent to Japan's 2019 anthropogenic emissions.
• The document introduces the concept of 'positive biophysical leakage,' where protecting a specific forest area increases the resilience of the broader landscape by maintaining cooler and moister conditions, thereby reducing the risk of fire and CO2 emissions in neighboring unprotected areas.

APA

Nugent, N., & Seymour, F. (n.d.). Comment les marchés du carbone sous- estiment-ils systématiquement les bénéfices pour le climat des forêts tropicales. World Resources Institute. https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2023-10/how-carbon-markets-systematically-undervalue-tropical-forests-climate-benefits-french.pdf

Chicago

Nugent, Nick, and Frances Seymour. Comment les marchés du carbone sous- estiment-ils systématiquement les bénéfices pour le climat des forêts tropicales. World Resources Institute, n.d. https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2023-10/how-carbon-markets-systematically-undervalue-tropical-forests-climate-benefits-french.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Nugent |first1=Nick |last2=Seymour |first2=Frances |title=Comment les marchés du carbone sous- estiment-ils systématiquement les bénéfices pour le climat des forêts tropicales |publisher=World Resources Institute |url=https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2023-10/how-carbon-markets-systematically-undervalue-tropical-forests-climate-benefits-french.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{nugentndcomment, author = {Nugent, Nick and Seymour, Frances}, title = {{Comment les marchés du carbone sous- estiment-ils systématiquement les bénéfices pour le climat des forêts tropicales}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2023-10/how-carbon-markets-systematically-undervalue-tropical-forests-climate-benefits-french.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }