Carbon emissions from the global land rush and potential mitigation

authored by

Chuan Liao, Kerstin Nolte, Jonathan A. Sullivan, Daniel G. Brown, Jann Lay, Christof Althoff, Arun Agrawal

Abstract

Global drivers and carbon emissions associated with large-scale land transactions have been poorly investigated. Here we examine major factors behind such transactions (income, agricultural productivity, availability of arable land and water scarcity) and estimate potential carbon emissions under different levels of deforestation. We find that clearing lands transacted between 2000 and 2016 (36.7 Mha) could have emitted ~2.26 GtC, but constraining land clearing to historical deforestation rates would reduce emissions related to large-scale land transactions to ~0.81 GtC.

Organisation(s)

Institute of Economic and Human Geography

External Organisation(s)

Arizona State University
University of Michigan
University of Washington
University of Göttingen
German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA)

Type

Article

Journal

Nature Food

Volume

2

Pages

15-18

No. of pages

4

Publication date

01.2021

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 2 - Zero Hunger, SDG 6 - Clean Water and Sanitation, SDG 15 - Life on Land

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-020-00215-3 (Access: Closed)