Forest Carbon Sinks in Chinese Provinces and Their Impact on Sustainable Development Goals

Dealing with the challenge of climate change has become a consensus in the international community, and the carbon sequestration and absorption function of forest ecosystems has significant potential in addressing climate change. This study, based on China’s sustainable development goals (SDGs) and forestry basic data, evaluates the progress of SDGs and forest carbon stocks in provinces and cities from 2000 to 2022 and reveals their changing trends. It uses fixed-effects models to quantify the impact of forest carbon sequestration on regional SDG6, SDG11, and SDG15, and clarify the mechanism of forest carbon sequestration in promoting regional SDGs. The research findings show the following: (1) The progress of SDG6, SDG11, and SDG15 in Chinese provinces and cities is not consistent. Most provinces have improved their SDG scores by more than 10 points, with the most notable progress in East China and Northeast China, while the progress in North China and Northwest China is relatively slow. (2) The forest carbon stock has increased by 93.2% from 2000 to 2022. The increase is most obvious in Northeast and Southeast China, while the forest carbon stock in North China and Northwest China is less than that of other regions. (3) The regression results show that forest carbon sequestration can significantly promote the development of SDG6, SDG11, and SDG15 at the 1% significance level. The heterogeneity test shows that forest carbon sequestration can significantly improve the progress of three sustainable development goals in eastern provinces, promote the achievement of SDG11 and SDG15 in central regions, and have a significant impact on only SDG15 in western regions. These research results are helpful for evaluating the contribution of forest carbon sequestration to SDGs and carbon neutrality goals and provide theoretical reference for China to address climate change and reduce climate change risks.