Facts & Figures
Emissions of greenhouse gases from land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF)
Andreas Gensior, Sophie Drexler, Roland Fuß, Wolfgang Stümer, Sebastian Rüter | 15.01.2025
In 2023, Germany's LULUCF sector was a significant source of greenhouse gases (GHG), with net emissions of 68.7 Mt CO₂ equivalents. The main sources are currently organic soils, followed by forest biomass, the former main sink. The dramatic increase in net emissions since the drought year 2018 is mainly due to forest damage caused by the drought and the associated calamities.
In the LULUCF sector anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) are reported, which result from Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry. Emissions from agricultural activities are reported separately. The inventory distinguishes emissions of carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄), and nitrous oxide (N₂O) from the land-use categories Forest Land, Cropland, Grassland, Wetlands, Settlements, and Other Land and from the pools organic and mineral soils, above-ground and below-ground biomass, deadwood and litter. Furthermore, the carbon stock in Harvested Wood Products is reported as well as emissions from artificial waterbodies, wildfires, and industrial peat extraction. In the LULUCF sector, pools can act both as a source (release → positive emissions) of greenhouse gases and as a sink (carbon capture → negative emissions) for CO₂.
Time series of GHG emissions (sum of CO2, CH4, and N2O in Mt CO2 equivalents) from the LULUCF sector since 1990, stratified by land use categories (source: National Inventory Document 2024); sources are positive, sinks are negative
In 2023, net emissions from Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry amounted to 68.7 Mt CO₂ equivalents (eq.). The LULUCF sector therefore acted as a source, as in 2023 the categories of Harvested Wood Products (-4.6 Mt CO₂ eq.) and Settlements (-0.2 Mt CO₂ eq. ) were only able to compensate to a very small extent for the emissions from the source categories Grassland (23.7 Mt CO₂ eq.) > Forest Land (20.9 Mt CO₂ eq.) ≥ Cropland (20.1 Mt CO₂ eq.) >> Wetlands (8.8 Mt CO₂ eq.).
With regard to the pools, organic soils were the main source for greenhouse gases in 2023 with 47.5 Mt CO₂ eq. These originated mainly from drained Cropland (9.5 Mt CO₂ eq.) and Grassland (29.4 Mt CO₂ eq.) areas used for agriculture, but also from forest areas (3,3 Mt CO₂ eq.), industrial peat extraction and its by-products (1.9 Mt CO₂ eq.), terrestrial Wetlands (3,7 Mt CO₂ eq.) and Settlements (1,6 Mt CO₂ eq.). The second largest source is biomass with net emissions of 21.9 Mt CO₂ eq., followed by artificial waters with their persistently high methane emissions (5.2 Mt CO₂ eq.).
Mineral soils have also increasingly developed from a sink to a source of greenhouse gases in recent years. In 2023, net emissions amounted to 5.0 Mt CO₂ eq. The increasing carbon losses after land use changes towards Cropland (CRF 4.B) (due to the continuously decreasing stocks under Cropland as a result of soil management) and due to the cultivation of Cropland and Grassland increasingly overcompensate for the incorporation of carbon in mineral soils under Forest Land and in land use changes towards Grassland and terrestrial Wetlands.
Numerous methodological improvements were implemented in the preparation of the current inventory, which, after recalculation of the time series over the entire reporting period, led in some cases to significantly higher net greenhouse gas emissions (both positive (emissions) and negative (removals)) compared to the previous year's calculations: for the period from 1990 - 2017, net emissions were reported for the LULUCF sector that are on average 10.7 ± 2.0 Mt CO₂ eq. a-1 higher than in the previous year's submission; for the period 2018 - 2023, these are an extreme 71.9 ± 7.9 Mt CO₂ eq. a-1. The main causes are
- the very high emissions from the Forest Land use category by taking into account the results of the fourth federal forest inventory, in particular by recording forest damage until 2022
- higher emissions from the land use categories Cropland (+39 % on average) and Grassland (+14 %) due to the first-time calculation of emissions from mineral soils as a result of soil management
- Increase in positive and negative emissions from organic soils due to the introduction of a new, high-resolution soil map and a greatly improved hydrological model
Time series of GHG emissions (sum of CO2, CH4, and N2O in Mt CO2 equivalents) from the LULUCF sector since 1990, stratified by pools (source: National Inventory Document 2024); sources are positive, sinks are negative
Significance as a GHG sink/source varies over the years
The time series of LULUCF emissions illustrates the strong variation in net emissions. The course of the curve essentially follows the curve of net emissions from forests. Their large amplitude and the sometimes rapidly changing trend are, among other things, the result of fluctuations in the demand for wood and wood prices as well as extreme weather events (e.g. storms, drought) and associated calamities (e.g. pest infestations).
As a result, the LULUCF sector has predominantly acted as a more or less strong net source of greenhouse gases since 2000, as the consistently high emissions from organic soils could no longer be offset by the sink function of forest biomass. The dramatic increase in net emissions in 2018 (+ 1,987 % compared to 2017) is also largely due to this circumstance. The forest damage caused by the severe drought in 2018 and the following years and the associated calamities (e.g. bark beetles) led to a severe dieback of all tree species, especially spruce, over an area of around 540,000 ha. As a result, the loss of biomass stocks was significantly greater than the also reduced growth rates. With the onset of the drought, the woody biomass of the forest thus developed from the main sink of the LULUCF sector (2017 emissions: -40.0 Mt CO₂ eq.) to a veritable source (2018 emissions: 31.5 Mt CO₂ eq.).
Only the Harvested Wood Products and dead organic matter still act as sinks, which can only compensate to a comparatively small extent for the sink effect of the forest biomass lost as a result of the damage events due to the corresponding increase. In contrast to deadwood, the Harvested Wood Product pool does not react directly to the damage events and is also dependent on the demand for wood and the associated wood utilisation. Therefore, the curve of the sink function of the Harvested Wood Product pool does not show the same clear changes as those of forest biomass and deadwood.
The Federal Climate Protection Act (KSG) requires the LULUCF sector to increase its net sink performance over time. The KSG specifies absolute net emission quantities for theLULUCF sector as a contribution to the climate protection targets for the years 2030 (-25 Mt CO₂ eq.), 2040 (-35 Mt CO₂ eq.) and 2045 (-40 Mt CO₂ eq.), but does not specify an annual target path. The net emissions from the LULUCF sector to be taken into account as a reference represent the average value of the emissions from the reference year and the three previous years.
The net emissions currently to be estimated (71 Mt CO₂ eq., calculated according to the accounting rules: Average value 2020 - 2023) currently falls well short of the target emission of -25 Mt CO₂ eq. for the year 2030 as required by the KSG. In the entire reporting period since 1990, the sink performance required for 2030 was only achieved in the individual year 1993, but never as a four-year average.
Comparison of the time series of net emissions (sum of CO2, CH4 and N2O in million t CO2-eq.; positive: source; negative: sink) of the LULUCF sector (1990-2023: National Inventory Document [NID]; 2025: previous year's estimate [VJS]) with the targets of the Federal Climate Protection Act (KSG §3a); key years are 2030, 2040 and 2045.
There are two anthropogenic impacts on sequestration of carbon in the biogeosphere and mitigation of GHG emissions in the LULUCF sector:
- Protection of existing carbon stocks: Avoiding all activities that result in a loss of carbon from existing stocks (such as wetland drainage and grassland conversion).
- Measures that cause a permanent carbon accumulation in compartments of the biogeosphere:
- Regulated rewetting of organic soils can reduce GHG emissions effectively and can also remove CO2 from the atmosphere and fix it in soil for centuries. This also results in co-benefits, e.g., for biodiversity, landscape hydrology, micro-climate. Furthermore, the cultivation of reed, peat mosses and woody plants on rewetted areas for production of renewable materials offers an additional potential to mitigate GHG emissions by substituting materials that cause GHG emissions during production, use or disposal (insulation materials, fossil fuels and so on).
- Cultivation of woody plants in the agricultural landscape, such as agroforestry, short-rotation coppices, and hedges, results on carbon storage in the woody plant biomass and also often in increasing humus storage and substitution of fossil fuels. Further positive environmental impacts (increased biodiversity, reduced erosion and so on) are initiated. These impacts are medium- to long-term.
- Afforestation and sustainable forest use: Forest biomass store large amounts of carbon and therefore new forest areas always result in increased carbon storage. The sustainable use of forests and the corresponding use of harvested wood products also contributes to climate protection: carbon is stored on wood products medium- to long-term and fossil fuels are substituted.
There are numerous measures for carbon sequestration in mineral soils used for agriculture, e.g., cultivation of catch and cover crops, wildflower strips, crop sequences that increase humus storage, cultivation of perennial plants, optimized fertilization with organic fertilizers, alternating land-use as cropland and grassland and so on. However, suitability of these measures is limited because their effects can be reversed easily and rapidly, e.g., by not continuing them. There is a need for research regarding the long-term effect of technical mitigation measures (such as application of biochar).
