Dataset Information

Land-use emissions play a critical role in land-based mitigation for Paris climate targets.

ABSTRACT: Scenarios that limit global warming to below 2?°C by 2100 assume significant land-use change to support large-scale carbon dioxide (CO₂) removal from the atmosphere by afforestation/reforestation, avoided deforestation, and Biomass Energy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS). The more ambitious mitigation scenarios require even greater land area for mitigation and/or earlier adoption of CO₂ removal strategies. Here we show that additional land-use change to meet a 1.5?°C climate change target could result in net losses of carbon from the land. The effectiveness of BECCS strongly depends on several assumptions related to the choice of biomass, the fate of initial above ground biomass, and the fossil-fuel emissions offset in the energy system. Depending on these factors, carbon removed from the atmosphere through BECCS could easily be offset by losses due to land-use change. If BECCS involves replacing high-carbon content ecosystems with crops, then forest-based mitigation could be more efficient for atmospheric CO₂ removal than BECCS.

SUBMITTER: Harper AB

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6081380 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Land-use emissions play a critical role in land-based mitigation for Paris climate targets.

Harper Anna B AB Powell Tom T Cox Peter M PM House Joanna J Huntingford Chris C Lenton Timothy M TM Sitch Stephen S Burke Eleanor E Chadburn Sarah E SE Collins William J WJ Comyn-Platt Edward E Daioglou Vassilis V Doelman Jonathan C JC Hayman Garry G Robertson Eddy E van Vuuren Detlef D Wiltshire Andy A Webber Christopher P CP Bastos Ana A Boysen Lena L Ciais Philippe P Devaraju Narayanappa N Jain Atul K AK Krause Andreas A Poulter Ben B Shu Shijie S

Nature communications 20180807 1

Scenarios that limit global warming to below 2 °C by 2100 assume significant land-use change to support large-scale carbon dioxide (CO<sub>2</sub>) removal from the atmosphere by afforestation/reforestation, avoided deforestation, and Biomass Energy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS). The more ambitious mitigation scenarios require even greater land area for mitigation and/or earlier adoption of CO<sub>2</sub> removal strategies. Here we show that additional land-use change to meet a 1.5 °C ...[more]

PMID: 30087330

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Dataset Information

Land-use emissions play a critical role in land-based mitigation for Paris climate targets.

Publications

Land-use emissions play a critical role in land-based mitigation for Paris climate targets.

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