Policy regarding carbon sinks has divided Europe from Japan, Canada, Russia and others.
Scientists presume that carbon sinks can slow the effects of global warming by trapping the main greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide.
Carbon sinks deep underground can capture and store emissions from gas flaring.
But the effectiveness of these "carbon sinks" is challenged by some scientists.
"One adaptation option for Africa is to keep her forests standing so that they provide essential environmental services such as carbon sinks, " she said.
Mr Jarraud pointed out that until now, "carbon sinks" such as the oceans had reclaimed half of all atmospheric carbon dioxide, but that pattern would not necessarily continue.
Clearing land to plant food for biofuel releases the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) through ploughing and can involve deforestation, which reduces the "carbon sinks" - the trees that absorb CO2.
They provide safe havens for ocean wildlife to recover and maintain healthy biodiversity, supporting habitats that act as carbon sinks, removing CO2 from the air and generating the majority of atmospheric oxygen.
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This would include advanced land use management strategies to protect or enhance land carbon sinks, and the use of biomass for both carbon sequestration (including biochar) and as a carbon neutral energy source.
According to the WMO, about 375 billion tons of carbon has been released into the atmosphere since the industrial revolution began in 1750, with around half this amount being absorbed by carbon sinks.
Key issues of contention remain, including how strictly the protocol's requirements will be applied, and the extent to which the planting of pollution-absorbing trees - so-called carbon sinks - can be used to meet targets.
Most of this is then absorbed by so-called carbon sinks, a mixture of photosynthesising plants and chemical precipitation, while a small amount remains to contribute to the rise in carbon-dioxide concentration that has been going on for the past 150 years.
As well as destroying such native ecosystems, deforestation also diminishes so-called "carbon sinks" -- thereby reducing the Earth's capacity to absorb and re-process atmospheric carbon dioxide -- while also adding to air pollution through the burning of land to clear it for cultivation (sugarcane fields are traditionally fired prior to harvest to remove leaves and drive away snakes).
Forests serve as carbon "sinks" by absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing it.
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This gets us one step closer to a global picture of carbon sources and sinks.
As part of this, NASA will replace the Orbiting Carbon Observatory, a satellite that was lost a year ago, and which was supposed to identify the world's sources, and sinks, of carbon dioxide.
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Land masses, and their inhabitants, emit methane without then sucking any of it back up, which makes inverse modelling easier than for carbon dioxide (which has sinks, in the form of photosynthesising plants, as well as sources).
Emily Pidgeon, CI, explained the importance of marine and coastal ecosystems as both sinks and sources of carbon.
Growth in the world economy, increased fossil fuel emissions since 2000 and a decline in the efficiency of the ocean and land 'sinks' to absorb carbon emissions.
The oceans are natural 'CO2 sinks' (a reservoir that absorbs atmospheric carbon).
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