ORGANIC SOILS ON THE WAY TO CLIMATE NEUTRAL EUROPEAN UNION: THE EXAMPLE OF ESTONIAN AGRICULTURAL LAND.

European Union climate policy envisages climate-neutrality by 2050 and fosters Member States to find opportunities to reduce GHG emissions. Land use is a key sector to achieve net-zero emissions. To understand how each Member State can contribute to achieving climate goals, the impact of land use change on GHG emissions should be studied at the national level. The use of organic soils for crop production has a detrimental climate impact due to the large carbon stock decrease. In Estonia, approximately a quarter of GHG emissions from agricultural soils results from cultivation of organic soils. This study aims to show the impact of a scenario that assumes part of agricultural land (AL) will be converted into forest land (FL) and green focus areas; and that AL on organic soils will be converted into grassland (GL). Furthermore, 20% of this area will be rewetted. The future scenario of AL use was created using the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways methodology. IPCC Guidelines were used in assessing GHG emissions. AL use changes following this scenario would help reduce GHG emissions by 90% by 2050 compared to 2020. In case of rewetting 20% of converted organic soils, the reduction would be 82% under assumptions about Estonian conditions. It is important to convert cropland on organic soils to GL and FL in order to reduce GHG emissions. However, before designing policy measures for changing AL use, it is important to analyse the actual status of organic soils in Estonia and determine emission factors at the national level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]