Making sense of the LULUCF Regulation: Much ado about nothing?

• Author: Lucia Perugini,Annalisa Savaresi,Maria Vincenza Chiriacò
• Published date: 01 July 2020
• Date: 01 July 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/reel.12332

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  wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/reel RECIEL. 2020;29:212–220.© 2020 John Wile y & Sons Ltd

1 | INTRODUCTION

Land use, lan d-use change and fores try (LULUCF) activities c an re-

lease greenho use gases (GHGs) into th e atmosphere, act ing as

sources of emissio ns – for example when trees di e as a result of de-

forestatio n, fires, pest s, diseases or soil dis turbances – or, con-

versely, store car bon – for example in bio mass, in soils and in

harvested wo od products – thus actin g as sinks. While globally the

LULUCF sec tor is re sponsible for about 11 perce nt of tota l carbon

dioxide (CO2) emissions,1 in the Euro pean Union (EU) it is a net car-

bon sink.2 Covering three q uarters of the EU territory, in 2017 for-

ests an d agricultural land were esti mated to offse t about 7 percent

of the EU’s total GHG e missions, creating a n et sink of about 284

million tonnes of CO2.3

The 2019 Intergovernme ntal Panel on Climate C hange (IPCC)

Special Repor t on Land and Climate Change emp hasizes that meet-

ing the Paris A greement’s temper ature goal will not be po ssible

without radi cal changes in how land re sources are utilized. 4 Similarly,

within the EU, the 2019 Com munication ‘The Eu ropean Green Deal ’5

sets the path tow ards a transition to a ‘clima te neutral’ econo my,

which postulat es deep decarbo nization in all secto rs by 2050, in-

cluding LU LUCF.

In spite of their imp ortant role in the g lobal carbon cycl e, however,

until 2020 LULUCF act ivities in the EU did not c ount towards the

achievement of the EU ’s climate change mitigati on target. There were

several reason s for this omission. The LULUCF sec tor has historically

been regarded as difficult to regulate, and not only in the EU.6 Initially,

there was a great de al of uncertainty over how to quant ify LULUCF

 1IPCC, Special Report on Climate Change, Desertification, Land Degradation, Sustainable

Land Managem ent, Food Secur ity, and Greenh ouse Gas Fluxes i n Terrestrial Ecos ystems,

Summary for P olicy Makers ( 2019).

 2This figure i s based on 2016 data , as reported in: E uropean Enviro nment Agenc y (EEA),

‘Annual European Union Greenhouse Gas Inventory 1990–2016 and Inventory Report

2018’ (EEA 2018).

 3European Union, ‘2019 National Inventory Report (NIR)’ (2019) /unfccc.int/

docum ents/194921>.

 4IPCC, Special Report on Climate Change, Desertification, Land Degradation, Sustainable Land

Management , Food Securit y, and Greenhous e Gas Fluxes in Terre strial Ecosys tems (2019) .

 5Commission ( EU), ‘The Europe an Green Deal ’ (Communicat ion) COM(2019) 640 f inal,

11 December 2019 (G reen Deal Comm unication).

 6See, e.g., K Do oley and A Gupt a, ‘Governing by E xpertise: T he Contested Po litics of

(Accountin g for) Land-bas ed Mitigation i n a New Climate Agr eement’ (2017) 17

Internatio nal Environmen tal Agreeme nts: Politic s, Law and Econom ics 483; JHA Kr ug,

‘Accounting of GH G Emissions and Re movals from Fore st Management : A Long Road

from Kyoto to Paris ’ (2018) 13 Carbon Ba lance and Manag ement 1.

Received: 1 Febr uary 2020 

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  Accepted: 26 March 20 20

DOI: 10 .1111/reel .12332

SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE

Making sense of the LULUCF Regulation: Much ado about

nothing?

Annalisa Savaresi1 | Lucia Perugini2 | Maria Vincenza Chiriacò2

1University of Stirling, Stirling, UK

2Euro-Mediterranean Centre on Climate

Change Founda tion, Viterbo, It aly

Correspondence

Email: annalisa.savaresi@stir.ac.uk

Abstract

The 2030 European U nion (EU) climate and energy polic y framework includes for the

first time a dedi cated instrument concerning g reenhouse gas emissions and remova ls

from land use, land-us e change and forestry (LULUCF). The new LULUCF Reg ulation

marks a significa nt expansion of the EU climate and energ y acquis, with ramifications

for other sensitive are as, such as agriculture, fore stry and renewab le energy. The

Regulation has had a par ticularly troubled negotiation histo ry. It has already been at

the centre of litigation , and is set to be revisited and amen ded by 2021. This article

assesses the role of th e Regulation in the 2030 climate and en ergy policy framework ,

trying to make sense of i ts troubled history, with a view to ascer taining whether the

scepticism with which i t has been welcomed is justified.