Statistical Land Use Change Emissions From Deforestation and Land Occupation for Crops

The World Resources Institute and partners have developed a standardized geospatial dataset to operationalize the GHG Protocol’s Land Sector and Removals Guidance for corporate reporting. The dataset provides emission factors for 42 major crops across global, national, provincial, and municipal levels for the years 2020–24, covering carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. Findings indicate significant variation in emissions by crop and region, with subnational data revealing 'hotspots' that national averages obscure.

• The agriculture, forestry, and other land use (AFOLU) sector accounts for roughly 21 percent of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, with land use change (LUC) contributing approximately half of that amount.
• The developed dataset provides benchmark factors for 42 crop categories across four traceability levels (global, national, provincial, and municipal) for the period 2020–24, including emissions from forested land conversion, soil carbon losses, and yield factors.
• National-level averages for 2024 show wide disparities in emissions per tonne of crop: soy emissions vary from 0.40 tonnes CO₂e in the United States to 1.67 in Brazil; cocoa emissions range from 6.7 in Ghana to 27.08 in Indonesia; and oil palm emissions range from 0.42 in Thailand to 0.98 in Indonesia.
• Subnational analysis demonstrates that national averages can hide specific emission 'hotspots', which underscores the necessity of using finer-scale traceability for accurate reporting.

APA

World Resources Institute (n.d.). Statistical Land Use Change Emissions From Deforestation and Land Occupation for Crops. https://www.wri.org/research/statistical-land-use-change-emissions-deforestation-and-land-occupation-crops

Chicago

World Resources Institute. Statistical Land Use Change Emissions From Deforestation and Land Occupation for Crops. n.d. https://www.wri.org/research/statistical-land-use-change-emissions-deforestation-and-land-occupation-crops.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=Statistical Land Use Change Emissions From Deforestation and Land Occupation for Crops |url=https://www.wri.org/research/statistical-land-use-change-emissions-deforestation-and-land-occupation-crops |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitutendstatistical, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{Statistical Land Use Change Emissions From Deforestation and Land Occupation for Crops}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://www.wri.org/research/statistical-land-use-change-emissions-deforestation-and-land-occupation-crops}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }