Please use this shareable version responsibly. Consider sharing in a digital format before printing onto paper.

LULUCF under the Paris Agreement
COP/CMA decisions
  • Decision 1/CP.21: Adoption of the Paris Agreement
  • Decision 4/CMA.1: Further guidance in relation to the mitigation section of decision 1/CP.21
  • Decision 18/CMA.1: Modalities, procedures and guidelines for the transparency framework for action and support referred to in Article 13 of the Paris Agreement
  • Decision 5/CMA.3: Guidance for operationalizing the modalities, procedures and guidelines for the enhanced transparency framework referred to in Article 13 of the Paris Agreement
  • Decision 1/CMA.5: Outcome of the first global stocktake
REDD+
Landscape
Credit: Alain Audet / Pixabay

Background

In Article 5 paragraph 1, the Paris Agreement encourages Parties to take action to conserve and enhance sinks and reservoirs of greenhouse gases as referred to in Article 4, paragraph 1(d) of the Convention, including forests. Paragraph 2 of the same article further encourages Parties to take action to implement and support, including through results-based payments, the Warsaw Framework for REDD+, as set out in related guidance and decisions already agreed under the Convention.

Enhanced Transparency Framework

Article 13 of the Paris Agreement established an Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF) to build mutual trust and confidence and to promote effective implementation. The ETF requests Parties to regularly provide the following information:

  • A national inventory report (NIR) of anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of greenhouse gases, prepared using good practice methodologies accepted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and agreed upon by the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement; and
  • Information necessary to track progress made in implementing and achieving its nationally determined contribution (NDC) under Article 4 of the Paris Agreement.

For further information on the Enhanced Transparency Framework, please also consult the transparency pages: Transparency

Reporting of the LULUCF sector

LULUCF is one of the sectors which each Party shall report in NIR under the ETF. Each Party shall report emissions and removals for all categories, gases and carbon pools considered in the GHG inventory throughout the reported period on a gas-a-gas basis in units of mass at the most disaggregated level, in accordance with the IPCC guidance and guidelines, except in cases where it may be technically impossible to separate information in emissions and removals in the LULUCF sector.

For preparation of NIR, each Party shall use the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, and shall use any subsequent version or refinement of the IPCC guidelines agreed upon by the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA). Each Party is encouraged to use the 2013 Supplement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories: Wetlands. Parties may use on a voluntary basis the 2019 Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories.

In the case of a Party addressing the emissions and subsequent removals from natural disturbances on managed lands in its national GHG inventory, that Party shall report information on the approach taken, and how it is consistent with IPCC guidance, as appropriate, and shall indicate if the estimates are indicated in national totals.

Also, in the case of a Party using an approach to reporting emissions and removals from harvested wood products (HWP) in accordance with IPCC guidance other than the production approach, that Party shall also provide supplementary information on emissions and removals from HWP estimated using the production approach.

For the full requirements for NIR under the ETF, please consult Chapter II of the MPGs.

Information necessary to track progress in implementing and achieving NDCs

Each Party shall provide, in its BTR, a description of its NDC under Article 4 of the Paris Agreement, encompassing the target(s), target year(s) and baseline(s). Furthermore, each Party shall identify pertinent indicators – such as areas of afforestation and/or reforestation – and compare the latest data for each indicator with the established baseline(s) to track progress towards the implementation and achievement of the NDC.

For this reporting, each Party shall report the following information relevant to the LULUCF sector;

  • Summary of GHG emissions and removals if each Party submits a stand-alone NIR;
  • Projections of GHG emissions and removals;
  • Where applicable to its NDC, any sector-, category- or activity specific assumptions, methodologies and approaches used. This includes approaches for addressing emissions and subsequent removals from natural disturbances on managed land, accounting for emissions and removals from HWP, and addressing the effects of age-class structure in forests;
  • Contribution from the LULUCF sector for each year of the target period or target year, if this information is not already included in the inventory time series of total net GHG emissions and removals.

For the full requirements for information necessary to track progress, please consult Chapter III of the MPGs.

 

Content