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Carbon tracking

Limit uncertainties in land emissions

Nature volume 534, page 621 (2016)Cite this article

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Launching satellites to measure carbon dioxide emissions is only part of a more integrated solution to achieving the goals of the Paris climate agreement (Nature 533, 446–447; 2016). In our view, the biggest hurdle is to reduce the high uncertainty in CO2 emission estimates — particularly from land use.

Land-use emissions are harder to quantify accurately than are those from, say, fossil fuels. To reduce uncertainties in tracking carbon from land use, it is crucial to monitor other data sources such as biomass. This can be done by remote sensing, for example with NASA's GEDI LIDAR sensor or the European Space Agency's proposed BIOMASS (P-band radar) sensor.

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  1. IIASA, Austria

    Steffen Fritz, Dmitry Schepaschenko & Linda See

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  1. Steffen Fritz
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  2. Dmitry Schepaschenko
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  3. Linda See
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Correspondence to Steffen Fritz.

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Fritz, S., Schepaschenko, D. & See, L. Limit uncertainties in land emissions. Nature 534, 621 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/534621e

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