The IPCC report on land use and climate change

This policy brief summarizes the IPCC's SRCCL report, detailing how human activity affects 75% of Earth's land surface and contributes to climate change. It highlights that while land currently acts as a net carbon sink, climate change and degradation (driven largely by agriculture and logging) threaten this capacity. The brief emphasizes that sustainable land management, incorporating indigenous knowledge and gender-proofing, is essential for limiting temperature rise to 1.5°C and ensuring future food security.

• Land use and management are significant contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for approximately 23% of total net human emissions between 2007 and 2016. Carbon dioxide emissions from land during this period were roughly 13% of total human CO2 emissions, primarily driven by deforestation. Additionally, human activities are responsible for 44% of methane and 82% of nitrous oxide emissions from land, with agriculture serving as a major source for both.
• While the land currently acts as a net carbon sink—removing 29% of total human CO2 emissions from the atmosphere between 2007 and 2016—this status is not guaranteed. Climate change may degrade the land's capacity to store carbon, potentially turning the land into a net source of carbon emissions.

APA

Team, Z. (2019). The IPCC report on land use and climate change. Zero Carbon Analytics. https://zerocarbon-analytics.org/science/the-ipcc-report-on-land-use-and-climate-change/

Chicago

Team, ZCA. The IPCC report on land use and climate change. Zero Carbon Analytics, 2019. https://zerocarbon-analytics.org/science/the-ipcc-report-on-land-use-and-climate-change/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Team |first1=ZCA |title=The IPCC report on land use and climate change |publisher=Zero Carbon Analytics |date=10 August 2019 |url=https://zerocarbon-analytics.org/science/the-ipcc-report-on-land-use-and-climate-change/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{team2019ipcc, author = {Team, ZCA}, title = {{The IPCC report on land use and climate change}}, institution = {Zero Carbon Analytics}, year = {2019}, month = aug, url = {https://zerocarbon-analytics.org/science/the-ipcc-report-on-land-use-and-climate-change/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }