Methodology for determining optimal sinks in the land and soil in Slovakia until 2030:
Methodology for determining optimal sinks in the land and soil in Slovakia until 2030:
On 14 July 2021, the European Commission published a proposal for an ambitious package of measures to achieve Europe's carbon neutrality by 2050. One of the important tools is the increase removals from the LULUCF, which mainly covers greenhouse gas emissions from land use. As part of the proposed measures, the target of achieved carbon (or CO2) capture for 2030 for Slovakia has changed. The European Commission is proposing a more ambitious target for sinks (reversing the negative trend). From Slovakia's point of view, this will mean a binding target of 6.8 Mt CO2 eq., which could be achievable despite the age structure of our forests. The National Forestry Centre presented three possible scenarios for the development of removals in the LULUCF sector, while the maximum increase in sinks with the application of all available measures is 9.5 Mt CO2 eq. by 2030, bringing us back to 1990 levels.
The proposal to create a new AFOLU sector after 2030 was one of the options, which Slovakia looked at positively. It will now be necessary to assess the impacts of such an extended system on Slovak conditions on the basis of the submitted documents and impact analyses.
New support for changes in forest management as well as other options for counting wood products (HWP) to enable the export of new business models (wood as a building material, fibers / polymers) will be implemented gradually by 2030. This will be linked to forthcoming EU initiatives, such as carbon agriculture and carbon capture certification.