DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17140776
title: The LULUCF Data Hub: translating global land use emissions estimates into the national GHG inventory framework (Version 1.0, 2023 NGHGI release)

description: This repository includes the data displayed in the LULUCF Data Hub, an online platform hosted in the EU Forest Observatory compiling various datasets of country-level CO₂ emissions and removals from land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF). The LULUCF Data Hub is described by Melo et al. (in review).Version 1.0 (NGHGI 2023 release) includes:

Update of the NGHGI LULUCF database compiled by the European Commission (EC) Joint Research Centre (JRC) and first described by Grassi et al. 2022. The database includes CO₂ fluxes from LULUCF sourced from the National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (NGHGIs) submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), using methodologies established by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (timeseries_NGHGI_1.0.csv). CO₂ fluxes are allocated to the classes Forest (excl. organic soils, excl. HWP), Deforestation (conversion of forest land to other land uses), Other non-forest land uses, Organic soils, and Harvested wood products (HWP), with gaps filled without altering the levels and trends of the reported data. 

The NGHGI database includes country submissions to the UNFCCC before implementation of the Paris Agreement reporting rules (or “pre-Paris GHG reporting”, noting that reporting to the Paris Agreement started in 2024). The sources of data include: i) NGHGI reported in 2023 by developed (Annex I) countries submitted in common reporting format tables; and ii) for developing (non-Annex I) countries data is extracted from the most complete and recent submission, which could be the national communications (NC) or Biennial Update Reports (BUR; n=124), submissions under the reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation framework (REDD+; n=11), or nationally determined contributions (NDC; n=7), with data compiled until August 2024. Information on data sources by country is available in the file text_box_iso3_1.0.csv.

In the LULUCF Data Hub version 1.0, the NGHGI estimates (2000-2022) are compared to results from two key global initiatives:



Global Carbon Budget (GCB) 2024 data from Friedlingstein et al. (2025), using four bookkeeping models to estimate CO₂ fluxes from Forest, Deforestation and Other transitions, and external datasets to estimate CO₂ emissions from Organic soils, from 2000 onwards. These original results are reclassified to match the NGHGI classes (timeseries_GCB_original_1.0.csv). In addition, forest fluxes from the GCB are adjusted to the NGHGI definition of human-induced CO₂ sink in managed land based on the methodology from Grassi et al. (2023) (timeseries_GCB_translated_1.0.csv). This increases the forest area and adds the indirect anthropogenic effects (e.g., due to increased atmospheric CO₂) compared to the original/reclassified results.

Global Forest Watch (GFW) 2024 data from Gibbs et al. (2025) includes CO₂ fluxes from forests and deforestation from 2001 onwards, estimated by integrating Earth observation data into a geospatial GHG monitoring framework. Gross fluxes from the model are reclassified to match the NGHGI classes (timeseries_GFW_original_1.0.csv). In addition, forest fluxes from GFW are adjusted to the NGHGI definition of human-induced CO₂ sink in managed land by excluding the area of unmanaged forests (timeseries_GFW_translated_1.0.csv). Thus, in this case, forest area increases compared to the original/reclassified results.


Data is available in Mt CO₂ yr⁻¹. Net CO₂ fluxes include emissions by sources and removals by sinks. Non-CO₂ emissions are not included. Countries are identified by their ISO3 code. In addition, the timeseries files also include aggregated estimates for World (WRD) and the European Union (EU27).

The LULUCF Data Hub was pre-released during the IPCC Expert Meeting on Reconciling Anthropogenic Land-Use Emissions (IPCC, 2024; Grassi et al., 2025) with preliminary data from the NGHGI database, GCB 2023 data and GFW provisional data from Gibbs et al (2025). Version 1.0 was released on 13 November 2024 with data from NGHGI database (V1.0), GCB 2024 and GFW 2024. 

For questions regarding this dataset, please email joana.brandao-de-melo@ec.europa.eu or giacomo.grassi@ec.europa.eu

Citation policy: Users should cite the dataset version they use (this dataset) for the NGHGI file. For the GCB-derived files, please cite Friedlingstein et al. (2025), and for the GFW-derived files, please cite Gibbs et al. (2025). When referring to the dataset as a whole, the Zenodo version DOI or concept DOI should be used. For methodological details and context on the LULUCF Data Hub, please cite the associated data description paper: Melo et al. (in review, Earth System Science Data).