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The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has weighed in on the promise and perils of enhancing land’s ability to absorb carbon through its Special Report on Climate Change and Land. This is an important development, as the scientific community has established that limiting warming to 1.5 degrees C will require removing carbon from the atmosphere in addition to reducing emissions. Carbon removal can happen via land-based approaches, such as enhancing soil’s ability to sequester carbon, and through technological approaches, such as direct air capture and storage (DACS). Reforestation is converting previously forested land back into forest. Afforestation, on the other hand, is planting forests on lands where they did not previously grow. The IPCC found that the potential for afforestation/reforestation is 0.5 - 10.1 gigatonnes of greenhouse gases (GtCO2-eq) per year, with the top of the range equivalent to China’s emissions in 2010). The upper end of the range assumes reforesting all grazing lands. - World Resources Institute