Ecosystem carbon sequestration service supports the Sustainable Development Goals progress

Ecosystem carbon sequestration service (ECSS) is the benefits humans derive from the ecosystem carbon sequestration process, which is key to regulating climate, stabilising the natural foundation for development, and supporting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) achievement. However, how ECSS contributes to the SDGs still needs to be discovered. Here, based on downscaling localisation SDG indicators, regression methods, and mechanism analysis, we identified the contribution of ECSS to the SDGs, taking China’s Loess Plateau (LP) region as an example. The results showed that the LP made higher progress on resource and environmental SDGs, such as SDGs 13, 12, 6, and 7 (climate, consumption and production, water, and energy) in the last two decades. As for the relationships between ECSS and SDGs, the progress of SDGs 6, 7, 13 and 15 (water, energy, climate, and ecosystems) showed positive linear responses to ECSS. The response of SDGs 1, 4, 8, and 12 (poverty reduction, education, economic growth, and consumption and production) to ECSS showed a threshold when the standardised ECSS value was 0.11. To improve ECSS for a more sustainable ecological foundation underpinning the SDGs, ECSS management should be improved to protect the ecosystem carbon pool and improve carbon sequestration function, as well as to promote the social-ecological co-benefits. This work links carbon sequestration service to sustainable development and can help in leveraging nature’s contributions towards carbon neutrality and the 2030 Agenda.