Leave poor land use alone, he has his own problems

The document warns that including land use in climate targets can lead to 'cheating the climate' by allowing countries to replace necessary fossil fuel reductions with unreliable and non-permanent carbon offsets. It highlights specific risks in the US, EU, and Russia, where poor accounting rules or high uncertainty regarding LULUCF emissions could dilute overall mitigation efforts. The author advocates for treating carbon sequestration in forestry and agriculture as a complementary contribution to climate action, rather than a direct substitute for emissions cuts in other sectors.

• Integrating land use into climate targets may allow countries to replace essential fossil fuel reductions with carbon offsets, which the author describes as 'cheating the climate'.
• Specific risks are identified for the US, EU, and Russia: the US may rely on 'imaginary' reductions due to data recalculations; poor accounting in the EU's 2030 target could reduce required efforts in other sectors by 23%; and Russia's pledge relies on the 'maximum consideration' of forests to potentially avoid reducing fossil emissions.
• The European Commission’s Joint Research Service (JRC) report from November 2015 notes high uncertainty regarding historical levels and projections of LULUCF emissions and removals, which complicates the measurement of actual reductions achieved.
• Carbon absorbed by land is considered non-permanent compared to fossil fuels, which are stored geologically for millions of years, making the exchange of land-based sequestration for continued fossil fuel use illogical.

APA

Perlman, K. (2015). Leave poor land use alone, he has his own problems. Carbon Market Watch. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/2015/12/01/leave-poor-land-use-alone-he-has-his-own-problems/

Chicago

Perlman, Kelsey. Leave poor land use alone, he has his own problems. Carbon Market Watch, 2015. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/2015/12/01/leave-poor-land-use-alone-he-has-his-own-problems/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Perlman |first1=Kelsey |title=Leave poor land use alone, he has his own problems |publisher=Carbon Market Watch |date=1 December 2015 |url=https://carbonmarketwatch.org/2015/12/01/leave-poor-land-use-alone-he-has-his-own-problems/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{perlman2015leave, author = {Perlman, Kelsey}, title = {{Leave poor land use alone, he has his own problems}}, publisher = {Carbon Market Watch}, year = {2015}, month = dec, url = {https://carbonmarketwatch.org/2015/12/01/leave-poor-land-use-alone-he-has-his-own-problems/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }