The Council of the EU and the European Parliament have reached a provisional political agreement on increasing the contribution of the land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) sector to the EU’s overall climate change targets.

The council and the parliament are aiming to set an overall EU-level objective of 310MT of CO2 equivalent (CO2 eq) of net removals in the LULUCF sector in 2030.

This sector covers the use of soils, trees, plants, biomass, and timber, and is responsible for both emitting and absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere.

The objective of the agreement, the council says, is to progressively increase absorptions and reduce emissions so that the EU-wide objective for carbon removals is reached.

“The deal will contribute to better protection and management of land and forests across the EU, and will fully tap into the emissions removal potential,” said Marian Jurecka, the Czech Republic’s minister for the environment.

The Czech Republic currently holds the rotating presidency of the both the European Council (heads of state/governments) and the Council of the EU (government ministers).

Jurecka continued: “At the same time the deal ensures different circumstances in each member state are taken into account when setting further ambition towards the 2030 targets.”

According to the provisional agreement between the two institutions, the current rule under which emissions do not exceed removals (the ‘no debit’ rule) will continue to apply until 2025.

For the period from 2026 to 2030, where removals should exceed emissions, each member state will have a binding national target for 2030.

In addition to these 2030 targets, the agreement sets a commitment for each member state to achieve a sum of net greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions and removals for the whole period from 2026 to 2029, which will be referred to as its ‘budget 2026-2029’.

This budget will be based on a trajectory of indicative annual values of removals and emissions.

Under the agreement, it remains possible to purchase and sell removal units between member states and use surplus annual emission allocations.

The agreement also maintains a level of flexibility to support member states that have difficulties in meeting their targets owing to natural disturbances such as wild fires, pest, and other issues, provided the EU as a whole is on course to meet the overall removals target for the LULUCF sector.

The agreement does, however, tighten the criteria to assess whether the EU-wide target is being met, and, consequently, if the flexibility mechanism can be used.

Member states will be allowed to use the flexibility mechanism up to a fixed limit, provided, among other conditions, they submit evidence to the European Commission that such flexibility is required.

Before the agreement can be implemented, it will have to be formally adopted by the full council and parliament.