LULUCF in the period up to 2020

Forest impressions
Photo: BMLUK / Alexander Haiden

Up to 2020, the land-use sector was largely considered in climate policy through the agreements under the Kyoto Protocol. The internationally agreed accounting rules also formed the basis for the inclusion of LULUCF in EU internal climate policy.

Rules for the Land Use Sector 2013–2020

The EU climate targets for 2020 were legally implemented in Austria through the Climate Protection Act (KSG) and the Emissions Trading Act (EZG 2011) and cover the following sectors:

  • Waste management

  • Energy and industry

  • Fluorinated gases

  • Buildings

  • Agriculture

  • Transport

The land-use, land-use change, and forestry (LULUCF) sector was not included, as at the time of adoption of the EU Climate Package there was no clarity on the inclusion of the LULUCF sector under the international Kyoto Protocol for 2013–2020.

At the UN Climate Conference in Doha in 2012, the rules and targets for the second commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol (2013–2020) were adopted (decision on accounting rules for LULUCF).

Based on these rules, an EU legal act was adopted to integrate the LULUCF sector into EU climate policy for 2020 (Decision No. 529/2013/EU, the LULUCF Decision).

This legal act stipulates, in particular, that reporting in this sector should be continuously improved until 2020, and that information on implemented or planned climate protection measures should be compiled and submitted to the European Commission.

In this context, Article 10 of the legal act requires Member States to prepare action plans with information on their current and future measures in the land-use sector and submit them to the European Commission. The Austrian action plan was finalized by the end of June 2014 and notified to the Commission; the mid-term evaluation report was prepared on December 22, 2016, and also submitted to the Commission. The final report, covering the entire period 2013–2020, was submitted to the Commission by the end of 2020.

The final accounting report for the second commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol shows that Austria met the agreed climate target for 2013 to 2020.

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