Imagine you are keeping a household budget, but instead of tracking just your spending, you also track every bit of money that comes in from side hustles, gifts and spare-change jars around the house. LULUCF works the same way for a country’s land – it is the accounting system that tracks both the greenhouse gases released from how we use land and the carbon dioxide absorbed by forests, soils and wetlands.
LULUCF stands for Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry. It is one of the sectors reported in every country’s national greenhouse gas inventory under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, and it is the only sector that can act as both a source of emissions and a sink that removes carbon from the atmosphere.
🌿 What LULUCF Actually Covers
Under international reporting guidelines, LULUCF is divided into six land-use categories plus one product category:
🌿 Forest land – emissions and removals from existing forests, new planting and deforestation
🌿 Cropland – carbon changes in soils used for tillage and horticulture
🌿 Grassland – emissions from managed grasslands, including drained organic soils under pasture
🌿 Wetlands – emissions from drained peatlands, peat extraction and rewetting activities
🌿 Settlements – land converted to urban or built-up use
🌿 Other land – bare rock, ice and any land not covered above
🌿 Harvested wood products (HWP) – carbon stored in timber used for construction, furniture and other long-lived products
Each category is further split into “land remaining” (for example, forest remaining forest) and “land converted” (for example, grassland converted to forest). This distinction matters because conversion between land types often triggers large one-off carbon gains or losses.
🌿 How LULUCF Fits into National Climate Targets
Ireland’s greenhouse gas figures are usually presented excluding LULUCF, because the sector’s complexity makes direct country-to-country comparisons difficult. In 2023, Ireland’s total emissions excluding LULUCF were 54,934 kilotonnes of CO2 equivalent. The provisional 2024 figure was 54 Mt CO2eq excluding LULUCF – a 2% decrease on 2023. When LULUCF is included, total emissions in 2024 were 57.65 Mt CO2eq, sitting 12% below the 2018 reference year.
However, Ireland’s national 51% reduction target under the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021 includes LULUCF. This means land-based emissions and removals count towards the carbon budgets. In the period 2021 to 2023, national total emissions including LULUCF used 63% of the 295 Mt CO2eq first carbon budget for 2021-2025.
At EU level, a separate LULUCF Regulation sets binding targets. Ireland’s Climate Action Plan 2024 aligned the national LULUCF target with the EU target of approximately 0.626 Mt CO2eq (roughly a 15% emissions reduction). The estimated EU LULUCF emissions budget for Ireland over 2026-2030 is 17.7 Mt CO2eq, though this figure may be revised as inventory methodologies improve.
🌿 Ireland’s LULUCF Challenge
Unlike many European countries, Ireland’s LULUCF sector has been a net source of emissions in every year from 1990 to 2023. The sector accounts for approximately 6.8% of national total emissions when included in the inventory.
The main drivers of this are:
🌿 Drained organic soils – Ireland has extensive areas of peat and organic soil under grassland, cropland and forestry that release CO2 when drained. The management of these soils, particularly under agriculture, is the single largest emission source within LULUCF.
🌿 Forest harvesting – a large proportion of Ireland’s forest estate was planted in the 1980s and 1990s and is now approaching harvesting age. As mature forests are felled, the carbon stored in their biomass is released or transferred to harvested wood products. Low planting rates in recent years mean new forests are not growing fast enough to offset this.
🌿 Peat extraction – although industrial peat harvesting has now ceased on Bord na Mona lands, the legacy of decades of extraction continues to affect the inventory.
Under EPA projections, the LULUCF sector is expected to reach net emissions of 7.8 Mt CO2eq by 2030 in a “with existing measures” scenario – a 95% increase on 2018 levels. With additional measures including wetland rewetting, peatland restoration and increased afforestation, this could be reduced to 5.5 Mt CO2eq.
🌿 Why LULUCF Accounting Is So Complicated
LULUCF is the most technically challenging sector to measure accurately. Unlike burning fossil fuels, where emissions can be calculated from fuel sales data, land-based carbon flows depend on soil types, vegetation cover, weather patterns, management practices and biological processes that vary hugely across a landscape.
Ireland uses a “managed land proxy” approach, meaning only land that is actively managed by humans is included in the inventory. This covers virtually all of Ireland’s land area given its long history of agricultural and forestry use.
The EPA has incorporated significant research and development into recent inventory revisions. Updates to the agriculture and LULUCF inventories in 2025 led to a systematic 6.8% decrease in estimated agriculture sector emissions compared to the data used to set the original carbon budgets. These revisions demonstrate that LULUCF accounting is still evolving – the ultimate target and Ireland’s progress will not be fully determined until the 2032 inventory submission.
🌿 The Role of Forests in LULUCF
Since 1990, Ireland’s forest area has expanded by approximately 300,000 hectares. These growing forests have been a critical carbon sink, absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere as trees build biomass. Forest land is currently the only sub-category within Ireland’s LULUCF that acts as a net sink.
However, this sink is under pressure. The forest estate is projected to transition from a net sink to a net source of emissions as the wave of trees planted in the 1980s and 1990s reaches maturity and is harvested. With planting rates stuck well below the Climate Action Plan target of 8,000 hectares per year, there are not enough young forests coming through to replace the carbon uptake being lost.
Improving the LULUCF balance requires action on multiple fronts: increasing afforestation, restoring peatlands, managing organic soils better and maintaining older forests as carbon stores where possible.
🌿 Frequently Asked Questions
🌿 What does LULUCF stand for?
LULUCF stands for Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry. It is the standard international framework for accounting the greenhouse gas emissions and removals associated with how countries manage their land, forests, soils and wetlands.
🌿 Why is Ireland’s LULUCF sector a net source of emissions?
The main reason is the large area of drained organic soils (peat and organic-rich soils) under grassland and other uses, which emit CO2 when exposed to oxygen. Forest harvesting from a maturing estate and legacy peat extraction also contribute. Unlike countries with vast intact forests, Ireland’s intensive land management history means emissions from soil and land conversion outweigh removals by growing forests.
🌿 Does LULUCF count towards Ireland’s net zero target?
Yes. Ireland’s national target of a 51% reduction by 2030 and the goal of a climate-neutral economy by 2050 both include LULUCF. The sector is also covered by the EU LULUCF Regulation, which sets separate binding targets. Improving the LULUCF balance – by turning it from a net source towards a net sink – is essential for meeting both national and EU commitments.
🌿 How is LULUCF different from other emissions sectors?
LULUCF is unique because it can produce both emissions (from drainage, deforestation and soil disturbance) and removals (from tree growth, carbon sequestration in soils and peatland rewetting). No other sector in the national inventory has this dual function, which is why it is often reported separately from the main total.
LULUCF connects to several related concepts. To understand how peatlands fit into the picture, see our guides to carbon sinks and peatland restoration. For the broader national framework, read about carbon budgets. And to understand the measurement units used in LULUCF reporting, visit our page on MtCO2eq.