A multi-sectoral integrated modelling framework for assessing greenhouse gas emissions and removals in the European Agriculture, Forestry and Land Use Sectors

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agriculture (mainly methane and nitrous oxide emissions) and from Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF, mainly carbon dioxide emissions) have been traditionally addressed by different legislative initiatives, estimated through different accounting rules and assessed by different modelling tools, despite potentially arising from the same land parcel. This has created a fragmented view of how climate change impacts land-based actions at both the EU and Member State level. The revised LULUCF regulation proposed by the European Commission, and recently approved by the European Parliament and the Council, represents a step for the progressive integration of the LULUCF and agriculture sectors into a the Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Uses (AFOLU) sectors, under the EU's overall emission reduction targets. The aim of this report is to test the integration of several sectoral modelling tools in a consistent manner for assessing GHG emissions and removals of the European AFOLU sectors. This should allow for a better understanding of the complex interactions between these different sectoral components and to inform decision-making about the overall emission mitigation potential that these sectors can provide in the future.