UK announces funding for Amazon CO2 Measurement Project

BRASILIA (Reuters) – On Tuesday, the United Kingdom announced new funding for a groundbreaking scientific experiment in the heart of the Amazon rainforest that will measure the impact of rising carbon dioxide levels on trees, the British Embassy said.

British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly visited the project north of Manaus, where scientists are building dozens of towers that will inject carbon dioxide into the treetops and monitor how plants absorb it.

The experiment, called AmazonFACE or Free-Air CO2 Enrichment, will help scientists better understand how the forest responds to higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the greenhouse gas causing climate change.

In addition to raising temperatures, the gas can also fertilize plants, with potential effects on the water cycle. This may determine the rainforest’s resilience to climate change in the coming decades.

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Results obtained from 2024 will be made available to the worldwide scientific community, allowing for a better understanding of how the world’s largest tropical forest can help sequester a portion of its carbon, while revealing the vulnerability of the Amazon to climate change. The embassy said.

The project is the result of the work of scientists from the National Research Institute of the Amazon (Inpa), the University of Campinas (Unicamp) and the Met Office, Britain’s National Meteorological Service.

The United Kingdom contributes R$45 million, in addition to R$32 million in resources from Brazil.

Cleverly will present a climate partnership with Brazil on Wednesday afternoon in Brasilia before returning home after a trip that included Jamaica, Colombia and Chile.

This month, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pledged £80m to the Amazon Fund, a major initiative funded mainly by Norway and Germany to combat deforestation and support sustainability projects in the Amazon rainforest.

Brazil is home to about 60% of the Amazon, whose rainforests are vital to mitigating the impact of climate change due to the massive amount of greenhouse gases they absorb.