LULUCF - related data of Austria
LULUCF is short for Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry, and attributes all GHG emissions that are related to the way land in Austria is used and changes in land uses happen (e.g., tranformation between different land use types).
As can be seen in the chart to the right, the sector can act as a significant emission sink, because it also includes binding of CO2 in forests, soil, or in general land mass. If the land use changes, for example if grass land or forest area is changed to settlements, emissions arise due to the different amounts of carbon that different land use types can store.
Forest land was and is the largest contributer to the LULUCF sector and dictates the overall emission trend. During the last decades, the growing forest mass has made the LULUCF sector in Austria mainly a carbon sink. However, this trend has declined in recent years, and even years with net-positive emissions have occured.