The twice-yearly update tracks the unfolding climate impacts on ocean and land carbon sinks
The Low latency Global Carbon Budget is led by Philippe Ciais and Piyu Ke at the Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement (LSCE) in France, with the support of research groups from 20 institutions in 8 countries.
Since 2024, as part of the Global Carbon Project, the Low latency Global Carbon Budget has provided early estimates of how much fossil CO2 stays in the atmosphere and how much is taken up by the ocean and the land, in the same framework as the annual Global Carbon Budget.
JANUARY–DECEMBER 2025
After severe carbon losses during the hot, dry 2023–2024 El Niño, the land carbon sink rebounded strongly in 2025, led by the tropics.
Ciais, Ke et al., arXiv:2609.34226 (in review, National Science Review)
Photo: Gpgeo, CC BY-SA 4.0 JULY 2024–JUNE 2025
Even after El Niño ended, drought-driven fires in the Amazon kept the CO2 growth rate above average through late 2024, before the tropics began to recover in early 2025.
Ke, Ciais et al., Advanced Science, 2026
Photo: Brian Ralphs, CC BY 2.0 JANUARY–DECEMBER 2024
In 2024 the CO2 growth rate reached a record high as tropical land turned into a net carbon source and the northern land sink weakened further.
Ciais, Ke et al., National Science Review, 2026
Photo: Imam4rake, CC BY-SA 4.0 JULY 2023–JUNE 2024
Tropical land lost carbon throughout the 2023–2024 El Niño, as severe drought struck the Amazon and central and southern Africa, while Southeast Asia remained wet.
Ke, Ciais et al., iScience, 2026
Photo: The Interior, CC BY-SA 4.0 JANUARY–DECEMBER 2023
The land carbon sink weakened sharply in 2023 as El Niño set in and Canadian wildfires released large amounts of carbon, only partly offset by exceptional summer forest uptake.
Ke, Ciais et al., National Science Review, 2024
Photo: Diego Delso, delso.photo, CC BY-SA 4.0 
Photo: Wesley Sousa/MCTI, CC BY 2.0 
Photo: Andreas Weith, CC BY-SA 4.0 
Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech Video: Microsoft Research. Playing this video will connect to YouTube and may use cookies.