This report examines the area of land required to meet projected biological carbon removal in national climate pledges and commitments. We find that almost 1.2 billion hectares (ha) of land – close to the extent of current global cropland – are required to meet these pledges. This finding shows that countries’ climate pledges rely on unrealistic amounts of land-based carbon removal, which cannot be achieved without significant negative impacts on livelihoods, land rights, food production and ecosystems. 

For example, over half of this area (633 million ha) requires a land-use change to achieve the projected carbon removal, with the potential to displace food production including sustainable livelihoods for many smallholder farmers. Slightly less than half (551 million ha) would restore degraded ecosystems. These findings suggest that countries need to reduce their reliance on land-based carbon removal in favor of stepping up emissions reductions from all sectors and prioritizing ecosystem-based approaches to restoration.

It is recommended that countries address four interlinked issues related to the use of land in their national climate pledges:

I. Greater clarity over assumptions made about the extent, use and ownership of land in national climate pledges;

II. Prioritizing the protection of primary ecosystems over tree planting efforts, since the latter’s mitigation benefits are negligible in the current critical response decade;

III. Ensuring that land-based climate mitigation measures build on and strengthen the rights of indigenous peoples, other human rights, livelihoods, and food sovereignty, and;

 IV. Promote multifunctional strategies, such as agroecology, that contribute to socioecological resilience while supporting the realization of various human rights.