Land Use Change

Calculating greenhouse gas emissions from land use change

LUC Impact tool helps to calculate greenhouse gas emissions from land use change

In Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies it is often a requirement to report the greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) caused by LUC separately. However, when calculating the LUC-related carbon footprint of an agricultural product, primary data availability of LUC is often a challenge. For instance, when previous land use is unknown. Fortunately, the FAO has collected data of cropland expansion and contraction, as well as on forest- and grassland expansion and contraction, on country levels. Based on this data, and built on the PAS2050-1 framework, Blonk has developed the LUC Impact tool (formerly known as Direct Land Use Change Assessment tool). LUC Impact is an Excel tool which provides a predefined way of calculating GHG emissions from LUC. The tool gives insight in the land transformation and associated emissions related to the cultivation of a specific country and crop combination. The LUC Impact tool has options to define LUC when the previous land use is known, but also when it is unknown. In case the country of cultivation is also unknown, the tool provides the option to calculate the average GHG emissions connected to LUC for a selected crop. This way, the tool offers three functionalities based on the amount of information available to the user. The tool also enables selecting some specific land management practices that influence the soil organic carbon content, such as tillage level and organic input level, to accurately represent the carbon stock of the specific cultivation system.