Today the European Commission published a draft law that would expand monitoring of greenhouse emissions to both farm land and forestry. Land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) has so far been excluded from the EU’s set of fixed targets to try to curb climate change, and would require a whole new monitoring and carbon accounting. By incorporating emissions and removals from forests and agriculture, the EU goes beyond the scope of recent Durban climate talks.
The aim of the legislation is to acknowledge the good efforts of farmers and forest owners at securing carbon. The EU plan follows the accounting rules adopted by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. By incorporating accounting for forests and agriculture, the EU will need to commit to new levels of monitoring.
Read more about this initiative here.
