Carbon fluxes from land 2000-2020: bringing clarity on countries’ reporting

Despite an increasing attention on the role of land in meeting countries’ climate pledges under the Paris Agreement, the range of estimates of carbon fluxes from Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) in available databases is very large. Here we present a new data compilation of LULUCF fluxes of carbon dioxide (CO2) on managed land, aiming at providing a consolidated view on the subject. Our database builds on a detailed analysis of data from National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (NGHGIs) communicated via a range of country reports to the UNFCCC. Furthermore, we compare our NGHGI database with two other sets of country-based data: those included in the UNFCCC GHG data interface, and those reported by countries to FAO and used as inputs into estimates of GHG emissions in FAOSTAT. Overall, while the quality and quantity of the LULUCF data submitted by countries to the UNFCCC significantly improved in recent years, important gaps still remain. Most developing countries still do not explicitly separate managed vs. unmanaged forest land, a few report implausibly high forest sinks, and several report incomplete estimates. With these limits in mind, the NGHGI database presented here represents the most up-to-date and complete compilation of UNFCCC country data on LULUCF.

GRASSI Giacomo;  CONCHEDDA Giulia;  FEDERICI Sandro;  ABAD VIÑAS Raúl;  KOROSUO Anu;  MELO Joana;  ROSSI Simone;  SANDKER Marieke;  SOMOGYI Zoltan;  VIZZARRI Matteo;  TUBIELLO Francesco; 

2022-10-21

COPERNICUS GESELLSCHAFT MBH

JRC129006

1866-3508 (online),   

https://essd.copernicus.org/articles/14/4643/2022/,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC129006,   

10.5194/essd-14-4643-2022 (online),