Abstract
This study aims to determine the feasibility of populating the land use component of the Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) greenhouse gas inventory. The context of the project is if the UK Government and Devolved Administrations are to include all sectors in meeting GHG emission reduction commitments under the UK Climate Change Act (2008) and Climate Change (Scotland) Bill (2009), which it must do, there is a pressing need to develop inventory methods to reflect the carbon and GHG consequences of improved land management. The national greenhouse gas inventory (designed to meet international reporting obligations) is currently limited in this respect. This project will focus on what can feasibly be achieved to populate this component of the inventory with activity data and emission factors at a range of tier levels. The main task will identify land management options for all land uses, but with particular focus on croplands (e.g. tillage, rotations, organic returns), grasslands (e.g. grazing practices, sward management) and wetlands, especially those which lead to significant emissions or are being proposed as mitigation or offsetting options. The project will identify available activity data and emission factors or describe data requirements where suitable data does not exist. Two additional but complementary tasks will focus on improving the methodologies for calculating emissions from the management and use of peatlands and emissions from the extraction of peat for horticultural use. A final task will explore the potential for improvements/changes to the land use change component of the LULUCF inventory, focussing on the use of the inventory as a policy tool, not just a reporting tool. The project builds on previous Defra-funded projects SP0567 and IF0154 and the work being undertaken in the LULUCF inventory contract (CEOSA 0805, now DECC) and the Agricultural GHG Inventory Reseach Platform (AC0114).
United Kingdom