Terrestrial Carbon Sink and Clean Air Co-Benefits From China's Carbon Neutrality Policy

Abstract

As the world's largest carbon emitter, China has been confronting the dual challenge of climate change and air pollution. China's quest for reducing carbon emissions will promisingly benefit the air quality, yet its impact on carbon sinks remains unclear. Here, we assess the effect of China's clean air actions and carbon neutrality policy on air quality and its associated co-benefits for terrestrial carbon sinks by integrating multiple observations and numerical modeling. We find a quadratic response of plant photosynthesis to aerosol loading due to trade-offs between diffuse fertilization effect and light limitations. The estimations show that China's air pollution suppresses terrestrial carbon uptake through aerosol-induced light limitations, leading to a 7.3% decrease in plant productivity in the 2010s. In the context of carbon neutrality pledge, the associated aerosol reductions tend to alleviate the suppression and produce an additional CO₂ removal of 0.39 GtCO₂ year⁻¹. Our results uncover the enhanced terrestrial carbon sinks by aerosol mitigation, highlighting the synergy between carbon neutrality and clean air.