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Carbon emissions from the global land rush and potential mitigation
Chuan Liao1, Kerstin Nolte2, Jonathan A Sullivan3
1School of Sustainability, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA. cliao29@asu.edu.
Nature Food
|April 28, 2023
Summary
Large-scale land deals drive significant carbon emissions from deforestation. Limiting land clearing to historical rates can substantially reduce these emissions, mitigating climate change impacts.
Area of Science:
- Environmental Science
- Climate Change Research
- Land Use Analysis
Background:
- Global drivers and carbon emissions from large-scale land transactions are under-researched.
- Understanding these factors is crucial for climate change mitigation strategies.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the primary drivers of large-scale land transactions.
- To estimate potential carbon emissions linked to deforestation from these transactions.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of factors such as income, agricultural productivity, arable land, and water scarcity.
- Estimation of carbon emissions under varying deforestation scenarios.
Main Results:
- Land transacted between 2000 and 2016 (36.7 million hectares) could have emitted approximately 2.26 gigatons of carbon (GtC).
- Constraining land clearing to historical deforestation rates could reduce emissions from these transactions to about 0.81 GtC.
Conclusions:
- Large-scale land transactions represent a significant source of carbon emissions.
- Implementing policies to manage land clearing rates can effectively lower the carbon footprint of land deals.
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