To still reach the climate targets set by the Paris Agreement, immediate and comprehensive emission reductions are necessary (Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), Working Group III)1. A substantial share of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is caused by the Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU) sector1. Today, land-use change (LUC) CO2 emissions contribute 9.4% of total anthropogenic GHG emissions, and AFOLU-based CH4 and N2O emissions 10.1%2 in CO2 equivalents (CO2e). Roe et al. find that the AFOLU sector, including bioenergy, could potentially contribute 30% (15 GtCO2e per year) towards achieving a 1.5 °C target3, stressing the high relevance of the land-use sector for total global emissions reductions3,4,5,6. Key AFOLU mitigation strategies are ecosystem protection and restoration to stop and eventually revert LUC emissions, including those from drained peat- and wetlands, the improvement of agricultural management practices or policies promoting changes in diets to reduce CH4 and N2O emissions and the provision of bioenergy feedstocks to replace fossils and to serve as a carbon dioxide removal (CDR) option via bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS)3. Paris-compatible scenarios assessed in the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report (AR6)7 show considerable contributions from the AFOLU sector to climate change mitigation. In...

Figure 2 displays the GHG flux profile for Ireland’s AFOLU sector in 2020 and in 2050 for the 13 scenarios explored—BAU and four transition pathways, each of which is: (i) non-GHG-constrained; (ii) net zero CO2e emission constrained, or; (iii) split-gas emission (or land) constrained. Full time series are available in the supplementary information data file (S1 to S5). Relative to 2020, BAU results in an increase in emissions to 29.7 Mt CO2e. Other non-emissions-constrained scenarios would result in annual net emissions of between 11.6 (CN) and 21.7 (SI) Mt CO2e (Fig. 2a). Livestock numbers in the CN scenario are constrained by available land area because of a shift to more extensive cattle systems that support co-delivery of ecosystem services (ES), whilst high productivity cattle and high stocking rates combined with ambitious deployment of “frontier” abatement technologies (e.g. enteric methane inhibitors, anaerobic digestion) in the SI scenario moderate livestock reductions (Table 3). Conversely, achieving net zero emissions in AFOLU requires a 90% reduction in agricultural emissions, such that there is no emissions space for cattle production in the net zero CN pathway after emissions from cropping systems, pigs, poultry and sheep are accounted for (Table S1). Acknowledging the distinct warming dynamics...

Young tropical forests play a crucial role in slowing climate change. Growing trees absorb carbon dioxide from the air, using photosynthesis to build it into their roots, trunks, and branches, where t...

From saplings to satellites: global snapshots of land-use climate fixes, data gaps, and carbon claims that don’t add up.