Climate change has become one of the most important environmental issues globally. It has remarkable results on plant production, water use and transport patterns. The risks to bio-diversity are growing with the passage of each day. The destruction of natural habitat, decline in biological diversity, conversion of forests land into arable lands, excessive use of natural resources, rising sea levels, increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere, gradual increase in the earth’s average temperature and dominance of existing habitat by exotic species are some of the major consequences of climate change. By keeping in mind the current situation, the present study was designed in order to assess the carbon stocks and potential of carbon sequestration in irrigated forest plantations of southern Punjab, Pakistan. The main objective of the study was to check the current status of carbon sequestration and carbon stocks in different forestry combinations and potential of trees grown under different forestry systems for CO₂ sequestration in the Districts Bahawalpur and Lodhran. The practical surveys were done in the selected study Districts to collect the data. Study findings showed that the quantity of above-ground and below-ground tree carbon stocks and the sequestration of CO₂ was little varied relying on the calculating procedure, climatic situations and distribution of tree species in the study region. District Bahawalpur had the highest (25.88 Mg ha^-1) and (83.75 Mg ha^-1) total tree carbon stocks and tree sequestration of CO₂ in comparison with the District Lodhran having (10.69 Mg ha^-1) and (39.42 Mg ha^-1) respectively. Between all the two selected districts, relied on the area, District Bahawalpur had highest (2090641.2 Mg) and (6181613.6 Mg) total estimated tree carbon stocks and the sequestration of CO₂ as compared to District Lodhran having (221434.6 Mg) and (647257.63 Mg) respectively. In addition, District Bahawalpur had the highest (186634.34 Mg) and (3163287.76 Mg) total potential tehsil carbon stock and total potential tehsil CO₂ Sequestration in comparison with District Lodhran having (1194670 Mg) and (2927022.2 Mg) respectively. The findings of that research recommend that the amount of the carbon stocks and also the potential of the trees to sequester atmospheric CO₂ can be easily enhanced by increasing the tree cover in our country as trees have the greater ability to sequester atmospheric carbon and store carbon stocks in larger amounts.

Keywords: Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Carbon Stock