The Regulation on land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) is one of the key instruments enabling the European Union to achieve its target of reducing emissions by at least 55% by 2030, compared to 1990 levels, and to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. The EU’s ambitious climate neutrality commitment requires greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and removals data to be estimated and reported as accurately, transparently, consistently, and comparably as possible, for example, by using geographically explicit data and country-specific parameters. From 2027, Member States must advance methodologies beyond the lowest Tier 1 for key categories in LULUCF inventories. Tier 1 relies on IPCC default values, standard assumptions related to land management and basic activity data, often yielding higher estimation uncertainties. Higher methodological approaches (Tier 2 or 3) demand country-specific data, models or measurements to boost accuracy and reduce uncertainties.
In Poland, spatial monitoring of land use changes and land management intensity poses a major challenge for reporting emissions from key LULUCF categories, particularly drained organic soils used in agriculture. These soils, often peatlands, are the largest source of GHG emissions due to accelerated decomposition from drainage and aeration, which turns carbon sinks into persistent CO₂ sources. The inventories of GHG emissions and removals in the sector concerning the use of grasslands, arable land and wetlands, prepared by the National Centre for Emissions Management at the Institute of Environmental Protection – National Research Institute (KOBIZE/IOŚ-PIB), are so far based on Tier 1 method.
The main aim of LIFE OrgFluX-PL „Development of advanced multilevel inventory method for GHG fluxes from agricultural organic soils using spatially-explicit data” (LIFE24-GIC-PL-LIFE OrgFluX-PL/101212871) is to improve the quality of greenhouse gas emissions and removals inventories in the land use, land use change, and forestry (LULUCF) sector, with a particular focus on greenhouse gas fluxes in organic soils used as grasslands.
Project duration: 1.02.2026 – 31.01.2030
Beneficiaries:
- Institute of Environmental Protection – National Research Institute (KOBIZE/IOŚ-PIB) (lead partner)
- Institute of Technology and Life Sciences – National Research Institute
- Institute of Agrophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences
- Poznań University of Life Sciences
- University of Łódź
More about project: https://life-orgflux.ios.edu.pl/en/
The LIFE OrgFluX-PL project entitled „Development of advanced multilevel inventory method for GHG fluxes from agricultural organic soils using spatially-explicit data” (101212871 — LIFE24-GIC-PL-LIFE OrgFluX-PL) has received funding from the European Union’s LIFE Programme and from the national funds from the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management.
