The ability of Europe's aging forests to absorb carbon dioxide is heading towards saturation point, threatening one of the continent's main defenses against global warming, a study showed on Sunday.

 

Forests from Spain to Sweden are getting older, packed with trees less good at soaking up the emissions blamed for rising world temperatures, mounting sea levels and increasing numbers of heatwaves and floods, experts said.

 

Trees are being threatened by more fires, storms and insect attacks, said the study published in the journal Nature Climate Change.

 

Some parts of the continent have also started cutting down some forests, it added.

 

That all meant Europe should no longer assume its forests would be able to continue absorbing carbon emissions from factories, power plants and cars, at the same rate, it added. Forests currently soak up about 10 percent of Europe's emissions.

 

"These regrowing forests have shown to be a persistent carbon sink, projected to continue for decades, however, there are early signs of saturation. Forest policies and management strategies need revision if we want to sustain the sink," the Nature Climate Change report said.

 

Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggested saturation point could be reached by around 2030 unless governments took action, said Gert-Jan Nabuurs, of Wageningen University and Research in the Netherlands, who led the study with experts in Finland, Switzerland and Italy.