Climate tipping points: Frozen peatlands could begin releasing carbon sooner than thought

Adam Vaughan is a writer.

Billions of tonnes of carbon are at risk of being released by the vast expanses of peatland in frozen soil across northern Europe.

Global warming has caused the permafrost in the north to release more carbon than it absorbs. Richard Fewster and his colleagues at the University of Leeds, UK, have identified when and where local climates will become unsuitable for peatland locked away in permafrost.

In all possible future carbon emissions scenarios, a small part of north-west Russia will become too warm for permafrost by the 2040s, compared with the previous thought. In the 2090s, most of Western Siberia will pass the same threshold.