Analysis of international climate change governance for the agriculture, forest and land use sector
Gaps and recommendations for future improvement
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 13129085 |
|---|---|
| Authors | María José Sanz (0000-0003-0471-3094, Ikerbasque, corresponding author), Alejandro Blazquez (0000-0002-7719-7468, Basque Centre for Climate Change) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 25 |
| Pages | 100278-100278 |
| Publication date | 2025-07-26 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Earth System Governance (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2589-8116 • E-ISSN: 2589-8116 |
| Publisher | Elsevier BV (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.esg.2025.100278 |
| OpenAlex | W4412657535 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 32 |
The crucial role of land-based activities in climate change mitigation and adaptation has gained recognition under the Paris Agreement, including through the commitments outlined in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). While technical assessments highlight the mitigation potential of the land sector, this potential is constrained by several challenges, particularly competing demands across development, social, environmental and climate objectives. International governance structures for land use often fail to address these multiple objectives, which makes it challenging to ensure sound arbitrages among them. This paper evaluates the current international governance landscape in the Agriculture, Forestry, and Other Land Use (AFOLU) sector, analysing governance functions that address barriers to climate change mitigation globally and assessing the extent to which these functions are met. Our findings indicate that while existing governance frameworks address barriers through guidance, rule-setting, transparency and accountability, support for implementation, and knowledge dissemination, gaps remain, particularly in guidance and signalling, transparency and rules and standards. Other key gaps identified are the insufficiency of the funds mobilised so far, the limitations of global assessments, and the duplicity of efforts and disconnection across different initiatives. Closing these governance gaps is essential to enable effective global governance in the AFOLU sector and unlock its mitigation potential. We propose potential solutions to bridge these gaps. • Complex and fragmented AFOLU governance hinders the sector's mitigation potential. • Governance functions face gaps in signalling, standards, transparency, funding, and alignment. • Coherent MRV standards and partnerships are key to improving transparency and funding. • Technical dialogue platforms can help coordinate and guide a sector-wide approach
Agriculture · Agroforestry · Business · Climate change · Corporate governance · Economics · Environmental planning · Environmental resource management · Geography · Land use · Land use, land-use change and forestry · Natural resource economics · Climate Change Policy and Economics · Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management · Environmental Science · Ecology · Finance
Natural climate solutions
Trading Water for Carbon with Biological Carbon Sequestration
The global tree restoration potential
Environmental Governance
Global Governance Meets Local Land Tenure
Why is socially‐just climate change adaptation in sub‐Saharan Africa so challenging? A review of barriers identified from empirical cases
A method to identify barriers to and enablers of implementing climate change mitigation options
Monitoring and estimating tropical forest carbon stocks
A sectoral perspective on international climate governance
Groundhog Day at the 2024 United Nations biodiversity conference
A sectoral perspective on global climate governance
The Fragmentation of Global Governance Architectures
The Transformative Capability of Transparency in Global Environmental Governance
The global climate of land politics
On international equity in reducing emissions from deforestation
Climatisation of agricultural issues in the international agenda through three competing epistemic communities
The potential of Amazon indigenous agroforestry practices and ontologies for rethinking global forest governance
The challenge of locating land-based climate change mitigation and adaptation politics within a social justice perspective
Transparency in multilateral climate politics
The Regime Complex for Climate Change
The global political economy of climate change, agriculture and food systems
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |