No more silos: how to integrate action on land use change and emissions reductions

Land use is responsible for more than a fifth of human-caused greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions – half of which comes from clearance of forests and other ecosystems, mostly for crops, plantations, and livestock. In fact, land use change emissions are such a large slice of the total emissions pie for most businesses that produce, trade or source agricultural or forest products that if conversion is not eliminated from supply chains before 2030, companies have little hope of meeting credible climate goals in line with the Paris Agreement.

September 2022 saw a major step forward in clarity and available resources for corporate action to reduce emissions in line with global goals to limit warming to 1.5C. The GHG Protocol’s draft Land Sector and Removals Guidance and the Science Based Targets initiative’s Forest, Land, and Agriculture (SBTi FLAG) guidance and tool provide companies with the information they need to account for and reduce their scope 1 and scope 3 emissions from land use change and land management.

Many companies have already made progress toward a key pillar of climate action by issuing deforestation- and conversion-free supply chain policies, and by taking action toward these goals through improvements in traceability, supplier engagement, monitoring, verification and landscape-level collaboration. 

Now, these action pathways have merged: new guidance from the Accountability Framework initiative, in partnership with SBTi and the GHG Protocol, provides a fully integrated approach for companies to manage land use change in their operations and supply chains. The guidance provides step by step information on how companies can set targets, account for land use change, and disclose progress to address deforestation and conversion while achieving emissions reduction goals. 

Integrated target setting

Commitments and time-bound targets are important to communicate companies’ intentions, accelerate progress throughout the value chain, and support clear accountability. The new guidance describes how companies that produce or source agricultural or forestry commodities can develop integrated targets that address both:

It also explains the SBTi FLAG requirement to publish no-deforestation commitments as part of the FLAG target-setting and validation process. 

Emissions accounting is integral to corporate climate action but presents unique challenges in the land sector. To help address these challenges, the new guidance describes how accounting for deforestation, ecosystem conversion and land use change emissions can be carried out using similar sets of assumptions, data and methods. Recognising that approaches to supply chain management and levels of traceability differ by context, the guidance details suitable methods for different scenarios, including:  

Alignment of metrics and disclosure expectations can save companies time and effort while generating better-quality data. The guidance advances these aims by providing an integrated approach to reporting performance on land use change and associated emissions. This approach has also been adopted by key reporting platforms, such as CDP, thus enabling companies to build this guidance in their existing practices.

The guide: 

With the UNFCCC COP27 about to start in Egypt, the imperative for companies to take action on climate that includes elimination of land use change has never been more evident. The science is clear that achieving both global and corporate climate goals requires eliminating emissions from all forms of land use change: from the clearance of forests as well as wetlands and peatlands, savannahs and grasslands. 

Following on commitments made in Glasgow in 2021, 13 major agricultural commodity traders are expected to unveil a roadmap for supply chain action consistent with a 1.5C pathway. Further down the supply chain, the Consumer Goods Forum joined forces with the Race to Zero to accelerate progress of its members toward meeting science-based targets. 

Companies can use the new suite of guidance from the Accountability Framework initiative, SBTi and the GHG Protocol to make good on these pledges, and to act with clarity and confidence to address deforestation, ecosystem conversion, and associated carbon emissions in their supply chains.