Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry (the LULUCF) activities include the removal of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere or decreasing emissions by halting the loss of carbon stocks. The ‘Fit for 55’ package revises the LULUCF regulations and refers to the EU’s target of reducing net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030. According to Secretary of State at the Ministry of Climate and Environment Edward Siarka, the targets for Poland have been drastically increased, whereas other countries, such as France, do not face the changes on the same level.
The rate of build-up of CO2 in the atmosphere can be reduced by taking advantage of the fact that atmospheric CO2 can accumulate as carbon in vegetation and soils in terrestrial ecosystems. Under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, any process, activity or mechanism which removes a greenhouse gas from the atmosphere is referred to as a “sink”. Human activities impact terrestrial sinks, through land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) activities, consequently, the exchange of CO2 (carbon cycle) between the terrestrial biosphere system and the atmosphere is altered. (unfccc.int)
The Polish goals of the reduction of the CO2 rate have been criticized in public for a couple of years now:
5/ #Poland is not on track to meet its modest 2030 target to cut CO2 emissions by 30% below 1990 levels. An upgraded target of at least 51% below 1990 levels (excl LULUCF) would ensure that Poland is on a 1.5°C compatible trajectory pic.twitter.com/yW6jRnmkBh
— Climate Analytics (@CA_Latest) December 9, 2020
According to mypolishczasy.com, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Climate and Environment Edward Siarka claims that the situation where the absorption target is growing so drastically (for Poland it is a nearly 30% increase) should not take place. Taking into consideration the absorption problem in all European forests, high and drastic targets applied to the selected countries are criticised by the Polish government. For the French, on the other hand, this target is very lowered. Our government believes that these EU’s climate proposals aims are very difficult to achieve because drought, the main cause of the absorption problems. For example, for 2019 or 2020 Polish forests absorbed just over 15 million tonnes of equivalent. There is a need to pay attention to the large discrepancy between the absorption capacity and what the forests are able to absorb today.
The regulations and this upcoming legislative package of the European Commission are still not ready and binding. The LULUCF may have a large impact on the Polish economy due to the law structure of Polish forests (only half privatised) and the strong position of wood usage in the furniture industry.