The heat on land: Promoting multifunctional land-use systems – creating synergies between UNFCCC and the Sustainable Development Goals

Research Project, 2016 – 2018

We will study three processes or challenges related to land use effects on climate change, sustainable development and natural resource management; (1) nations’ climate contribution through INDCs, (2) the sustainability goals (SDG) and (3) the lack of productive land. These three challenges require a transformative change in the land-use systems that reduce greenhouse gas emissions/increase carbon sink, make land use sustainable and increase its productivity. Climate policy can support such shifts by promoting multifunctional land-use systems. Here we assess 161 INDCs for indicators of multifunctional land-use systems and match them with targets of relevant SDGs for synergies and trade-offs between goals. Brazil and India’s climate- and land-related programmes provide us with lessons learned for policy implementation, which will be examined using the UNFCCC framework. Results will feed in to the process of national climate and land-use plans and the future climate policy design.