Background and Objective

Decision No 529/2013/EU ultimately aims to prepare the knowledge so that the LULUCF sector could be formally included in future Union’s emission reduction targets. Under this Decision, Member States are also required to transmit information on their actions to increase removals and decrease emissions of GHG from activities related to forestry and agriculture in a coherent and comparable manner.

The key reporting and accounting requirements under Articles 3(1), 3(2) and 3(3) of Decision No 529/2013/EU include:

• Mandatory reporting and accounting for GHG emissions/removals from afforestation, deforestation and reforestation (AD/R) and forest management (FM) which applies to each accounting period including 2013-2020 (Article 3(1));
• A road map for improving the reporting and accounting systems for GHG emissions/removals associated with Cropland Management (CM) and Grazingland Management (GM), which will become mandatory from 1 January 2021 (Article 3(2));
• Option on voluntary accounting for Revegetation (RV) and Wetland Drainage and Rewetting (WDR) (Article 3(3)).

The project aims to fill knowledge gaps by focusing on CM, GM, RV and WDR options. Forestry related reporting has become mandatory under the Kyoto Protocol and Member States have so far focused their efforts for improvements on forestry.

The project has been granted as a tender by the European Commission, General Directorate Climate Action (DG CLIMA) to a consortium of experts in European institutions.

The main goal of the project is to analyse the current LULUCF reporting of EU Member States and assist Member States in harmonizing and improving the reporting in light of the implementation of Decision 529/2013/EU. In close dialogue with Member State experts, the project will produce guidance documents how to overcome critical issues, best practice examples and – where possible – assess costs of potential improvements.

Of importance to this tender, an array of actions (technical, organisational and operational) that may not reduce GHG emissions directly are critical to success mitigation efforts on the ground. These options may include:

• setting up and upgrading the existing elements of reporting and monitoring systems in Member States, based on e.g. higher resolution data for representation of land, country-specific emission factors and more detailed methodologies that reflect the effects of mitigation actions;
• improving relevant information systems and processes, institutional capacity and training.

Target Group

Experts of climate change policy and emission inventories

Approach

The guidance documents are produced based on information by detailed questionnaires about current LULUCF reporting and planned improvements in Member States. The questionnaires are filled in by project experts assisted by Member State experts. Preliminary results are discussed with stakeholders in a workshop.

Our Research Questions

1. Which methods, data and institutional arrangements are currently used to report LULUCF segments which could be further used or developed for CM, GM, RV and WDR reporting?

2. How do Member States prepare themselves for implementing Decision No. 529/2013/EU?

3. Which Member States have potential for RV and WDR so that accounting may present an interesting option?

4. How could guidance for formal aspects and content look like that guides the progress reports about emission reduction measures?