Speaker
Description
To mitigate the ongoing ecological and climate crisis, governments and private actors are developing multiple interventions, among which three have large implications on land: (i) conservation of natural ecosystems, (ii) forest and landscapes restoration and afforestation and (iii) non-fossil energy production, through renewable energy infrastructures and the associated minerals mining, and land-based bioenergy. Expanding the area devoted to these sustainability interventions can lead to conflicts between these and with other land uses. We compiled quantitative targets from multilateral agreements or public commitments, and, using global suitability and priority maps, provide a spatial assessment of their distribution and overlap at the global level. We found that meeting global sustainability targets would require more than doubling the area already occupied by the considered interventions, to reach a total of ~5350 Mha in 2050, or ~40% of the ice-free land surface (of which 30% for conservation). A third of current agricultural land, and over half of the forestry land would be targeted in 2050 if the interventions were spatialized following a top-down and siloed approach, with large country and regional disparities. Over a third of energy-related best-locations are also targeted by other interventions. When also considering other business-as-usual land demands for food, fiber and timber, taken together with sustainability interventions, the area needed is larger than the earth’s ice-free land surface. Our findings provide additional insight into the mounting land squeeze, and stress the need to break silos, and focus on organising sobriety to reduce production and overconsumption.
| If your abstract is not accepted for an oral presentation, would you be interested in presenting it as a poster instead? | Yes |
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| If accepted by the Scientific Board, I agree to have my presentation/poster and abstract published on the Belgian Climate Centre websites and social media. | Yes |
