Land-based mitigation technologies are becoming increasingly important in efforts to limit global warming, yet their potential depends on more than technical estimates alone. This article explores how mitigation portfolios can be assessed across multiple levels, from local landscapes to global policy, while accounting for feasibility, trade-offs and equity. It highlights the need to combine modelling with stakeholder knowledge to support more realistic and just land-based climate action.
Land-based mitigation technologies and practices (LMTs) are central to climate policy scenarios that limit global warming to below 2 °C and ideally 1.5 °C by reducing carbon dioxide emissions and enhancing carbon dioxide removals from the atmosphere. Reliable estimates of their mitigation potential are essential for informing climate policies across spatial scales and governance levels. However, assessments must move beyond maximum technical potential to account for environmental constraints, social equity, competing land uses and barriers to large-scale deployment. The authors argue for an analytical framework that integrates numerical modelling with stakeholder engagement in integrated transdisciplinary analyses. This approach enables equitable coproduction of knowledge and supports a deeper understanding of the complex interactions between social and environmental processes that shape the implementation and governance of LMTs, thereby improving their realistic contribution to climate change mitigation and broader socioeconomic objectives.
Project / The LANDMARC project will enhance understanding of the potential of land-based negative emission solutions in agriculture, forestry and other land use sectors.
Event on 22 June – 26 June in Pretoria / SEI and CCAC are hosting an in-person hands-on training workshop 22–26 June in Pretoria on SEI's LEAP software for climate and clean air planning in Africa.
Journal article / Deforestation policies in the Brazilian Amazon reduce forest loss but fail to curb degradation, threatening carbon, biodiversity, and ecosystems.
Other publication / How Brazil–China cooperation can reshape agricultural trade, reduce deforestation risks and drive more sustainable global supply chains.
