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Land-Use Change Emission Factors

Last reviewed September 2026

Land-Use Change Emission Factors

Q: Why is land carbon accounted as a stock change rather than an emission factor?

Because land both stores and releases carbon depending on how it is used and managed. Rather than a fixed emission per hectare, the IPCC estimates the carbon held in biomass, dead organic matter and soil before and after a change; the difference, spread over the transition period, is the emission or removal. A growing forest or a soil building organic carbon is a sink (negative emission); a cleared forest or drained peat is a source.

Q: How do the soil-carbon stock-change factors work?

The managed soil-carbon stock equals a reference stock (SOC ref , tabulated by climate and soil type in the agricultural-soils dataset ) multiplied by three dimensionless factors: F LU for the land use (e.g. long-term cropland vs grassland), F MG for management (e.g. full vs reduced tillage), and F I for carbon input (low, medium, high, high-with-manure). Changing practice changes the factors, and the difference in managed stock — annualised over ~20 years — is the CO₂ flux.

Q: What are the crop-residue parameters for?

They quantify how much residue a crop leaves and how much nitrogen and carbon it contains: the dry-matter fraction of the harvested product, the residue-to-yield ratio, the below-to-above-ground biomass ratio, and the nitrogen content of above- and below-ground residues. These feed the managed-soils N₂O estimate (residue nitrogen returned to the soil) and soil-carbon accounting (residue carbon input).

Q: How large is deforestation compared with peatland drainage?

Both are large but behave differently. Clearing tropical forest releases the standing biomass carbon in one event — indicatively around 165 t CO₂e per hectare (temperate forest less). Draining peatland releases carbon every year the water table stays low — around 27 t CO₂e per hectare per year — so over a couple of decades a drained peatland can exceed a one-off forest clearance. The values here are indicative; site-specific stocks give a better estimate.

Q: Do I convert carbon to CO₂?

Yes. The stocks and stock-change results are in tonnes of carbon (t C). Report emissions in CO₂ by multiplying the carbon change by 44/12 (the ratio of the molecular mass of CO₂ to that of carbon, ≈ 3.667). A loss of 1 t C is 3.667 t CO₂; a gain of 1 t C is a removal of 3.667 t CO₂.

Q: Do settlements and urban trees really count?

Yes — settlements are one of the six IPCC land-use categories, and urban trees store and accumulate meaningful carbon. The dataset provides per-tree carbon accumulation for common species, crown-cover growth rates, and default greenspace and tree-cover percentages by biome so that urban tree carbon can be estimated rather than assumed to be zero.

Q: Where does forest land fit?

Forest land has its own, larger parameter set — biomass, growth increments, wood-density and harvested-wood-product factors — covered in the forest-land dataset. This page handles cropland, grassland, settlements and the land-use-change events between categories. Both are subsets of the same IPCC AFOLU Tier-1 dataset .

Q: Is this a separate dataset from the AFOLU emission factors?

No — it is a subset. The land-sector factors here are part of the GreenCalculus IPCC AFOLU Tier-1 emission factors dataset , which carries the single citable Zenodo DOI. This page presents the cropland, grassland, settlement and land-use-change portion in full with its own machine-readable endpoint and CSV, but for citation you reference the parent AFOLU dataset DOI, not a separate land-use DOI.

Cropland, grassland and land-use change carbon factors dataset: IPCC 2006 Guidelines Volume 4 — biomass and soil-carbon stocks, soil-carbon stock-change factors, crop-residue dry-matter and nitrogen parameters, settlement tree carbon and land-use change carbon release, 222 parameters. A subset of the IPCC AFOLU Tier-1 dataset. Source lineage from IPCC Guidelines through the GreenCalculus MasterBrain and REST API/CSV to your land-sector carbon total. — MasterBrain v2026.284 · updated 6 Nov 2026

Land is both a source and a sink of carbon. Clearing forest for cropland releases decades of stored biomass carbon in a single event; draining peat exposes ancient soil carbon to slow oxidation; and the way cropland and grassland are managed steadily builds or depletes the carbon in their soils. The IPCC does not treat land carbon as a fixed emission factor — it tracks the change in carbon stocks across biomass, dead organic matter and soil as land use and management change.

This page publishes the IPCC cropland, grassland, settlement and land-use-change carbon parameter set implemented in the GreenCalculus MasterBrain v2026.284 — 222 parameters covering biomass and soil-carbon stocks, the soil-carbon stock-change factors (F_LU, F_MG, F_I), crop-residue dry-matter and nitrogen parameters, settlement tree carbon, and indicative land-use-change carbon release. It is a subset of the IPCC AFOLU Tier-1 emission factors dataset. These factors power the GreenCalculus Land-Use Change calculator — see the methodology.

Quick Answer

Land-sector emissions are a carbon-stock change, not a per-unit factor — the difference in stored carbon before and after a change of use. Converting tropical forest releases roughly 165 t CO₂e per hectare; draining peatland loses about 27 t CO₂e/ha every year.

For developers

Get this dataset as JSON

Every row on this page, as versioned JSON. Pull it on each update instead of re-scraping. No key required:

curl https://greencalculus.com/wp-json/greencalculus/v1/afolu-land-use-factors

Open data, no key required. Part of the GreenCalculus API.

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The IPCC land carbon-stock method

The land sector is accounted by the stock-difference approach: estimate the carbon held in each pool (above- and below-ground biomass, dead organic matter, and soil organic carbon) before and after a change, and the difference — annualised over the transition period — is the emission or removal. For soils, the managed stock is the reference stock scaled by land-use, management and carbon-input factors; for biomass, standing stocks are gained on growth and lost on clearing.

The calculation

ΔC = (C_after − C_before) ÷ D over transition period D, then CO₂ = −ΔC × 44/12.
For soils: SOC = SOC_ref × F_LU × F_MG × F_I, where F_LU, F_MG and F_I are the land-use, management and input factors below.

Stocks and factors — not emission factors

Most values here are carbon stocks (t C/ha), dry-matter quantities, or dimensionless stock-change factors — not ready-made emission factors. The emission is the change in stock: an increase is a removal (a negative emission), a decrease an emission. Convert a carbon change to CO₂ with the 44/12 mass ratio. The indicative land-use-change values are already expressed as CO₂e per hectare.

Land-use change carbon

Converting one land use to another moves large amounts of carbon at once. Clearing forest releases the biomass carbon as CO₂; draining peatland exposes stored soil carbon to oxidation year after year. These headline factors bound the scale; the detailed stock-change method below tracks the gradual carbon changes within cropland, grassland and settlements.

Indicative land-use change carbon release IPCC 2006 Vol.4; AR6 GWP
Parameter	Value	Unit
Land use change — tropical deforestation	165000	kg CO2e per hectare
Land use change — temperate deforestation	90000	kg CO2e per hectare
Peatland drainage — annual CO2 loss	27000	kg CO2e per hectare per year

Crop residue parameters

Crop residues return nitrogen and carbon to the soil. For each crop the IPCC gives the dry-matter fraction of the harvested product, the residue-to-yield ratio, the below-to-above-ground biomass ratio, and the nitrogen content of above- and below-ground residues — the inputs to the managed-soils N₂O calculation and to soil-carbon accounting.

Crop residue dry-matter, ratio and nitrogen-content parameters, by crop IPCC 2006 Vol.4 Ch.11 Table 11.1A / Ch.2
Crop	Dry-matter fraction kg DM/kg fresh	Residue:yield ratio kg DM/kg DM	Below:above ratio kg/kg	N above-ground kg N/kg DM	N below-ground kg N/kg DM
Alfalfa	0.9	—	0.4	0.027	0.019
Barley	0.89	1.2	0.22	0.007	0.014
Beans & pulses	0.91	2.1	0.19	0.008	0.008
Generic	0.85	1	0.22	0.008	0.009
Generic grains	0.88	1.3	0.22	0.006	0.009
Grass-clover mix	0.9	0.3	0.8	0.025	0.016
Maize	0.87	1	0.22	0.006	0.007
Millet	0.9	1.4	—	0.007	—
N-fixing forages	0.9	0.3	0.4	0.027	0.022
Non-legume hay	0.9	—	0.54	0.015	0.012
Non-N-fixing forages	0.9	0.3	0.54	0.015	0.012
Oats	0.89	1.3	0.25	0.007	0.008
Peanuts	0.94	1	—	0.016	—
Perennial grasses	0.9	0.3	0.8	0.015	0.012
Potatoes & tubers	0.22	0.4	0.2	0.019	0.014
Rice	0.89	1.4	0.16	0.007	—
Rye	0.88	1.6	—	0.005	0.011
Sorghum	0.89	1.4	—	0.007	0.006
Soybeans	0.91	2.1	0.19	0.008	0.008
Spring wheat	0.89	1.3	0.28	0.006	0.009
Winter wheat	0.89	1.3	0.23	0.006	0.009

Cropland biomass — perennial & agroforestry

Woody perennial crops and agroforestry systems store carbon in standing biomass. Values are carbon or dry-matter stocks per hectare (agroforestry by region and climate), plus carbon-accumulation rates and harvest cycles for perennial woody crops.

Perennial and agroforestry biomass carbon stocks and accumulation IPCC 2006 Vol.4 Ch.5 & Ch.8
Parameter	Value	Unit
Agroforestry biomass C storage — Africa Humid tropical high (agrosilvicultural)	41	tonnes C per hectare
Agroforestry biomass C storage — Australia Humid tropical (silvopastoral)	39.5	tonnes C per hectare
Agroforestry biomass C storage — N America Dry lowlands (silvopastoral)	132.5	tonnes C per hectare
Agroforestry biomass C storage — N America Humid tropical high (silvopastoral)	143.5	tonnes C per hectare
Agroforestry biomass C storage — N America Humid tropical low (silvopastoral)	151	tonnes C per hectare
Agroforestry biomass C storage — N Asia Humid tropical low (silvopastoral)	16.5	tonnes C per hectare
Agroforestry biomass C storage — S America Dry lowlands (agrosilvicultural)	117	tonnes C per hectare
Agroforestry biomass C storage — S America Humid tropical low (agrosilvicultural)	70.5	tonnes C per hectare
Agroforestry biomass C storage — SE Asia Dry lowlands (agrosilvicultural)	75	tonnes C per hectare
Agroforestry biomass C storage — SE Asia Humid tropical (agrosilvicultural)	120	tonnes C per hectare
Perennial cropland AGB — Alley cropping (SE Asia)	2.9	tonnes dry matter per hectare
Perennial cropland AGB — Coconut (SE Asia)	196	tonnes dry matter per hectare
Perennial cropland AGB — 1-year fallow (E Africa)	12	tonnes dry matter per hectare
Perennial cropland AGB — 2-year fallow (E Africa)	35	tonnes dry matter per hectare
Perennial cropland AGB — 6-year fallow avg (SE Asia)	16	tonnes dry matter per hectare
Perennial cropland AGB — Gmelina-cacao (SE Asia)	116	tonnes dry matter per hectare
Perennial cropland AGB — Jungle rubber multistorey (SE Asia)	304	tonnes dry matter per hectare
Perennial cropland AGB — Mature rubber (SE Asia)	178	tonnes dry matter per hectare
Perennial cropland AGB — Oil Palm (SE Asia)	136	tonnes dry matter per hectare
Perennial cropland AGB — Young cinnamon 7yr (SE Asia)	68	tonnes dry matter per hectare
Perennial cropland AGB — Young rubber (SE Asia)	48	tonnes dry matter per hectare
Perennial woody crop biomass C accumulation rate — Temperate (all moisture regimes)	2.3	tonnes C per hectare per yr
Perennial woody crop AGB carbon stock at harvest — Temperate (all moisture regimes)	63	tonnes C per hectare
Perennial woody crop biomass C loss — Temperate (all moisture regimes)	63	tonnes C per hectare per yr (at harvest cycle)
Perennial woody crop harvest cycle — Temperate (all moisture regimes)	30	years (harvest/maturity cycle)
Perennial woody crop biomass C accumulation rate — Tropical dry	1.8	tonnes C per hectare per yr
Perennial woody crop AGB carbon stock at harvest — Tropical dry	9	tonnes C per hectare
Perennial woody crop biomass C loss — Tropical dry	9	tonnes C per hectare per yr (at harvest cycle)
Perennial woody crop harvest cycle — Tropical dry	5	years (harvest/maturity cycle)
Perennial woody crop biomass C accumulation rate — Tropical moist	2.6	tonnes C per hectare per yr
Perennial woody crop AGB carbon stock at harvest — Tropical moist	21	tonnes C per hectare
Perennial woody crop biomass C loss — Tropical moist	21	tonnes C per hectare per yr (at harvest cycle)
Perennial woody crop harvest cycle — Tropical moist	8	years (harvest/maturity cycle)
Perennial woody crop biomass C accumulation rate — Tropical wet	10	tonnes C per hectare per yr
Perennial woody crop AGB carbon stock at harvest — Tropical wet	50	tonnes C per hectare
Perennial woody crop biomass C loss — Tropical wet	50	tonnes C per hectare per yr (at harvest cycle)
Perennial woody crop harvest cycle — Tropical wet	5	years (harvest/maturity cycle)

Soil-carbon stock-change factors

The IPCC soil-carbon method multiplies a reference stock (SOC_ref, in the agricultural-soils dataset) by dimensionless factors for land use (F_LU), management (F_MG) and carbon input (F_I) to give the managed stock; the change over ~20 years is a CO₂ flux. Drained organic soils instead lose carbon at a fixed annual rate (organic-soil EF).

Cropland and grassland soil-carbon stock-change factors (F_LU, F_MG, F_I) and drained organic-soil emission factors IPCC 2006 Vol.4 Ch.5–6 Tables 5.5, 5.10, 6.2
Parameter	Value	Unit
EF drained organic cropland soils — Boreal / Cool Temperate	5	t C per ha per yr
EF drained organic cropland soils — Tropical / Sub-Tropical	20	t C per ha per yr
EF drained organic cropland soils — Warm Temperate	10	t C per ha per yr
F_I cropland high input with manure — Temperate Boreal And Tropical Dry	1.37	dimensionless
F_I cropland high input with manure — Temperate Boreal And Tropical Moist Wet	1.44	dimensionless
F_I cropland high input with manure — Tropical Montane	1.41	dimensionless
F_I cropland high input without manure — Temperate Boreal And Tropical Dry	1.04	dimensionless
F_I cropland high input without manure — Temperate Boreal And Tropical Moist Wet	1.11	dimensionless
F_I cropland high input without manure — Tropical Montane	1.08	dimensionless
F_I cropland low input — Temperate Boreal Dry	0.95	dimensionless
F_I cropland low input — Temperate Boreal Moist	0.92	dimensionless
F_I cropland low input — Tropical Dry	0.95	dimensionless
F_I cropland low input — Tropical Moist Wet	0.92	dimensionless
F_I cropland low input — Tropical Montane	0.94	dimensionless
F_I cropland medium input — all climates	1	dimensionless
F_LU cropland long-term cultivated — Temperate Boreal Dry	0.8	dimensionless
F_LU cropland long-term cultivated — Temperate Boreal Moist	0.69	dimensionless
F_LU cropland long-term cultivated — Tropical Dry	0.58	dimensionless
F_LU cropland long-term cultivated — Tropical Moist Wet	0.48	dimensionless
F_LU cropland long-term cultivated — Tropical Montane	0.64	dimensionless
F_LU cropland paddy rice — all climates	1.1	dimensionless
F_LU cropland perennial/tree crop — all climates	1	dimensionless
F_LU cropland set-aside (<20 yrs) — Temperate Boreal And Tropical Dry	0.93	dimensionless
F_LU cropland set-aside (<20 yrs) — Temperate Boreal And Tropical Moist Wet	0.82	dimensionless
F_LU cropland set-aside (<20 yrs) — Tropical Montane	0.88	dimensionless
F_MG cropland full tillage — all climates	1	dimensionless
F_MG cropland no-till — Temperate Boreal Dry	1.1	dimensionless
F_MG cropland no-till — Temperate Boreal Moist	1.15	dimensionless
F_MG cropland no-till — Tropical Dry	1.17	dimensionless
F_MG cropland no-till — Tropical Moist Wet	1.22	dimensionless
F_MG cropland no-till — Tropical Montane	1.16	dimensionless
F_MG cropland reduced tillage — Temperate Boreal Dry	1.02	dimensionless
F_MG cropland reduced tillage — Temperate Boreal Moist	1.08	dimensionless
F_MG cropland reduced tillage — Tropical Dry	1.09	dimensionless
F_MG cropland reduced tillage — Tropical Moist Wet	1.15	dimensionless
F_MG cropland reduced tillage — Tropical Montane	1.09	dimensionless
EF drained organic grassland soils — Boreal / Cold Temperate	0.25	t C per ha per yr
EF drained organic grassland soils — Tropical / Sub-Tropical	5	t C per ha per yr
EF drained organic grassland soils — Warm Temperate	2.5	t C per ha per yr
F_I grassland high input — all climates	1.11	dimensionless
F_I grassland medium input — all climates	1	dimensionless
F_LU grassland — all climates	1	dimensionless
F_MG grassland improved — Temperate Boreal	1.14	dimensionless
F_MG grassland improved — Tropical	1.17	dimensionless
F_MG grassland improved — Tropical Montane	1.16	dimensionless
F_MG grassland moderately degraded — Temperate Boreal	0.95	dimensionless
F_MG grassland moderately degraded — Tropical	0.97	dimensionless
F_MG grassland moderately degraded — Tropical Montane	0.96	dimensionless
F_MG grassland nominally managed — all climates	1	dimensionless
F_MG grassland severely degraded — all climates	0.7	dimensionless

Grassland biomass

Grassland biomass carbon by climate zone: the peak above-ground live biomass, and the total above- plus below-ground non-woody biomass used as the default stock when grassland is converted or established.

Grassland biomass (tonnes dry matter per hectare), by climate zone IPCC 2006 Vol.4 Ch.6 Table 6.4
Climate zone	Peak above-ground	Total above + below-ground
Boreal (dry & wet)	1.7	8.5
Cold temperate, dry	1.7	6.5
Cold temperate, wet	2.4	12
Warm temperate, dry	1.6	6.1
Warm temperate, wet	2.7	13.5
Tropical, dry	2.3	8.7
Tropical (moist & wet)	6.2	16.1

Settlement trees & greenspace

Urban (settlement) carbon is dominated by trees. The IPCC provides per-tree carbon accumulation for common species, crown-cover growth rates, and potential-natural-vegetation greenspace and tree-cover defaults by biome for estimating urban tree area.

Tree & crown biomass carbon

Settlement tree carbon accumulation and crown-cover biomass IPCC 2006 Vol.4 Ch.8 Tables 8.2–8.4
Parameter	Value	Unit
Cropland-to-settlements biomass C loss — annual crops	4.7	tonnes C per hectare
Tier 2a CRW — Australia	3.6	kg C per m2 crown cover per yr
Tier 2a CRW — United States (global default)	2.9	kg C per m2 crown cover per yr
Tier 2b per-tree carbon accumulation — Aspen	0.0006	tonnes C per tree per yr
Tier 2b per-tree carbon accumulation — Cedar/larch	0.0072	tonnes C per tree per yr
Tier 2b per-tree carbon accumulation — Douglas fir	0.0122	tonnes C per tree per yr
Tier 2b per-tree carbon accumulation — Hardwood maple	0.0142	tonnes C per tree per yr
Tier 2b per-tree carbon accumulation — Juniper	0.0033	tonnes C per tree per yr
Tier 2b per-tree carbon accumulation — Mixed hardwood	0.01	tonnes C per tree per yr
Tier 2b per-tree carbon accumulation — Pine	0.0087	tonnes C per tree per yr
Tier 2b per-tree carbon accumulation — Soft maple	0.0118	tonnes C per tree per yr
Tier 2b per-tree carbon accumulation — Spruce	0.0092	tonnes C per tree per yr
Tier 2b per-tree carbon accumulation — True fir/Hemlock	0.0104	tonnes C per tree per yr

Greenspace & tree cover by biome (potential natural vegetation)

Potential-natural-vegetation greenspace and tree-cover percentages, by biome IPCC 2006 Vol.4 Ch.8
Parameter	Value	Unit
PNV percent canopy greenspace — Desert	16.9	percent (mean canopy greenspace by area)
PNV percent total greenspace — Desert	64.8	percent (mean total greenspace by area)
PNV percent tree cover — Desert	9.9	percent (mean tree cover by area)
PNV percent canopy greenspace — Forest	50.9	percent (mean canopy greenspace by area)
PNV percent total greenspace — Forest	58.4	percent (mean total greenspace by area)
PNV percent tree cover — Forest	31.1	percent (mean tree cover by area)
PNV percent canopy greenspace — Grassland	32.9	percent (mean canopy greenspace by area)
PNV percent total greenspace — Grassland	58.8	percent (mean total greenspace by area)
PNV percent tree cover — Grassland	18.9	percent (mean tree cover by area)

Application — formula & worked example

The calculation

Biomass loss: CO₂ = Δ(biomass C) × 44/12. Managed soil: ΔSOC = SOC_ref × (F_LUF_MGF_I − F_LUF_MGF_I′) ÷ D.

Clearing tropical forest. Converting one hectare of tropical forest to cropland releases the standing biomass carbon — indicatively about 165 t CO₂e per hectare as a one-off event. If that land is drained peatland, add roughly 27 t CO₂e per hectare every year the drainage continues — an ongoing loss, not a one-off, which is why peatland conversion is so carbon-intensive over time.

Building soil carbon back. On existing cropland, moving from full tillage and low residue input to reduced tillage with high input and manure raises the management and input factors: at F_I ≈ 1.37–1.44 (high input with manure) the managed soil carbon settles above the reference stock, and the gain is a removal accrued over the ~20-year default transition. Multiply the reference stock (SOC_ref, from the agricultural-soils dataset) by the factors to get each managed stock, difference them, annualise, and convert with 44/12.

Framework requirements

Land-sector carbon is a Scope 1 emission (or removal) for a land-owning operation, and the AFOLU land categories in national inventories. Corporate land and removals accounting follows the GHG Protocol Land Sector and Removals Guidance.

Where the land-use change factors apply
Framework	Role	Basis
IPCC 2006 National Inventories	AFOLU land categories & stock-change method (CRF 3B)	These ARE the methods
GHG Protocol Land Sector & Removals	Land carbon stock changes & removals	Corporate land/removals accounting
GHG Protocol Corporate Standard	Scope 1 (land-use change & management)	IPCC methods; GWP per latest assessment

Common reporting errors

Treating a stock as an emission. A carbon stock (t C/ha) is not an emission — the emission is the change in stock over time. Difference the before and after stocks.
Getting the sign wrong. A stock increase is a removal (negative emission); a decrease is an emission. Land carbon flows both ways — sign it correctly.
Forgetting the 44/12 conversion. Carbon and CO₂ differ by the 44/12 molecular-mass ratio; report the CO₂ mass, not the carbon mass.
Not annualising land-use change. A conversion event is spread over the default transition period (commonly 20 years) unless you have a measured timeline — don’t book the whole stock loss in year one and nothing after.
Missing the ongoing peatland loss. Drained organic soils lose carbon every year, not once — use the annual organic-soil emission factor, not a one-off stock difference.
Double-counting crop-residue nitrogen. The residue dry-matter and nitrogen parameters here feed the managed-soils N₂O calculation; count that nitrogen once.
Using one climate’s values everywhere. Biomass stocks, grassland biomass and stock-change factors vary by climate zone and region — match the location.
Assuming settlements are carbon-neutral. Urban trees store and accumulate carbon; the settlement parameters let you account for it rather than ignore it.

Methodology, boundaries & uncertainty

What this dataset is. The IPCC land-sector carbon parameter set — biomass and soil-carbon stocks for cropland, grassland and settlements, the soil-carbon stock-change factors (F_LU, F_MG, F_I) and drained-organic-soil emission factors, crop-residue dry-matter and nitrogen parameters, settlement tree carbon, and indicative land-use-change carbon release — from IPCC 2006 Guidelines Vol.4 (Cropland Ch.5, Grassland Ch.6, Settlements Ch.8, generic land Ch.2), as implemented in the GreenCalculus MasterBrain. Part of the IPCC AFOLU Tier-1 dataset.

Boundary. Carbon-stock changes in biomass, dead organic matter and soil across cropland, grassland, settlements and land-use conversion, reported in Scope 1. Excludes managed-soils N₂O (separate dataset), enteric and manure emissions, and energy/machinery CO₂. Forest land is covered by the forest-land dataset.

Rounding policy. Values are reproduced at IPCC precision. Stocks are t C per hectare (or t dry matter per hectare); stock-change factors are dimensionless; crop-residue parameters carry their own ratios; land-use-change values are kg CO₂e per hectare.

Uncertainty. IPCC assigns wide ranges to land-carbon defaults — biomass stocks and stock-change factors commonly carry ±50% or more, and the indicative land-use-change figures are order-of-magnitude. Tier-1 defaults suit national and screening estimates; measured stocks (Tier-2/3) are expected where land is a key category.

Applicability. Climate- and region-differentiated defaults; match the climate zone, region and management system, and use measured stocks where available.

Implementation & provenance chain

Primary source — IPCC 2006 Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, Volume 4 (AFOLU): Chapter 2 (generic methods), Chapter 5 (Cropland), Chapter 6 (Grassland) and Chapter 8 (Settlements). GWP per IPCC AR6.
MasterBrain — each parameter is curated under a stable afolu.cropland.*, afolu.grassland.*, afolu.settlements.* or afolu.luc.* key with its source reference and GHG scope/category; current version v2026.284 (2026-11-06).
REST & CSV — the /afolu-land-use-factors endpoint projects these rows as JSON; the CSV button below serves the identical set.
Calculators — GreenCalculus land-sector tools read the same keys, so a published inventory and this page cannot diverge.
Update plan — static reference; revalued on a new IPCC refinement to the AFOLU land methods. Logged in the version history and bumps the dataset version.

Data access — REST API & CSV

The full 222-row dataset is available as a machine-readable REST endpoint and as a flat CSV download — the same rows shown above, versioned and citable.

JSON — REST API

All 222 land-sector parameters with keys, values, units, gas, GHG scope/category and source references. Cache-Control: max-age=3600; X-GC-Version header signals dataset updates.

/wp-json/greencalculus/v1/afolu-land-use-factors

Open API endpoint →

CSV — flat dataset

Flat CSV of all 222 rows (key, name, value, unit, gas, GHG scope/category, source, note) — ready for spreadsheet import.

Click to generate ↓

Citation guidance

Cite the IPCC primary source. These factors are a subset of the GreenCalculus IPCC AFOLU Tier-1 dataset, which holds the citable DOI — cite the parent dataset, not a separate land-use DOI.

IPCC (2006). 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, Volume 4: Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use, Chapters 2, 5, 6 and 8 (generic land methods, Cropland, Grassland, Settlements). Prepared by the National Greenhouse Gas Inventories Programme, IGES, Japan.

IPCC 2006 Guidelines Vol.4 primary citation

Say, Jeremiah (2026). IPCC AFOLU Tier-1 emission factors (machine-readable). GreenCalculus. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20621658

Parent dataset DOI — includes the land-use-change subset

Browse the full IPCC AFOLU Tier-1 emission factors dataset, of which this page is a part.

Frequently asked questions

Why is land carbon accounted as a stock change rather than an emission factor?

Because land both stores and releases carbon depending on how it is used and managed. Rather than a fixed emission per hectare, the IPCC estimates the carbon held in biomass, dead organic matter and soil before and after a change; the difference, spread over the transition period, is the emission or removal. A growing forest or a soil building organic carbon is a sink (negative emission); a cleared forest or drained peat is a source.

How do the soil-carbon stock-change factors work?

The managed soil-carbon stock equals a reference stock (SOC_ref, tabulated by climate and soil type in the agricultural-soils dataset) multiplied by three dimensionless factors: F_LU for the land use (e.g. long-term cropland vs grassland), F_MG for management (e.g. full vs reduced tillage), and F_I for carbon input (low, medium, high, high-with-manure). Changing practice changes the factors, and the difference in managed stock — annualised over ~20 years — is the CO₂ flux.

What are the crop-residue parameters for?

They quantify how much residue a crop leaves and how much nitrogen and carbon it contains: the dry-matter fraction of the harvested product, the residue-to-yield ratio, the below-to-above-ground biomass ratio, and the nitrogen content of above- and below-ground residues. These feed the managed-soils N₂O estimate (residue nitrogen returned to the soil) and soil-carbon accounting (residue carbon input).

How large is deforestation compared with peatland drainage?

Both are large but behave differently. Clearing tropical forest releases the standing biomass carbon in one event — indicatively around 165 t CO₂e per hectare (temperate forest less). Draining peatland releases carbon every year the water table stays low — around 27 t CO₂e per hectare per year — so over a couple of decades a drained peatland can exceed a one-off forest clearance. The values here are indicative; site-specific stocks give a better estimate.

Do I convert carbon to CO₂?

Yes. The stocks and stock-change results are in tonnes of carbon (t C). Report emissions in CO₂ by multiplying the carbon change by 44/12 (the ratio of the molecular mass of CO₂ to that of carbon, ≈ 3.667). A loss of 1 t C is 3.667 t CO₂; a gain of 1 t C is a removal of 3.667 t CO₂.

Do settlements and urban trees really count?

Yes — settlements are one of the six IPCC land-use categories, and urban trees store and accumulate meaningful carbon. The dataset provides per-tree carbon accumulation for common species, crown-cover growth rates, and default greenspace and tree-cover percentages by biome so that urban tree carbon can be estimated rather than assumed to be zero.

Where does forest land fit?

Forest land has its own, larger parameter set — biomass, growth increments, wood-density and harvested-wood-product factors — covered in the forest-land dataset. This page handles cropland, grassland, settlements and the land-use-change events between categories. Both are subsets of the same IPCC AFOLU Tier-1 dataset.

Is this a separate dataset from the AFOLU emission factors?

No — it is a subset. The land-sector factors here are part of the GreenCalculus IPCC AFOLU Tier-1 emission factors dataset, which carries the single citable Zenodo DOI. This page presents the cropland, grassland, settlement and land-use-change portion in full with its own machine-readable endpoint and CSV, but for citation you reference the parent AFOLU dataset DOI, not a separate land-use DOI.

Version history

Substantive revisions to this dataset reference page
Version	Date	MasterBrain	Summary
1.0	2026-07-21	v2026.59	Initial publication. IPCC 2006 Vol.4 cropland, grassland, settlement and land-use-change carbon parameter set (222 parameters): biomass and soil-carbon stocks, soil-carbon stock-change factors (F_LU/F_MG/F_I), crop-residue dry-matter and nitrogen parameters, settlement tree carbon and indicative land-use-change release. Formula, worked example, framework mapping, 8-item FAQ, REST + CSV access. Subset of the IPCC AFOLU Tier-1 dataset.

Explore the full AFOLU dataset

Land-use change is one part of the IPCC AFOLU Tier-1 emission factors — the parent dataset also covers enteric fermentation, manure management, agricultural soils, rice cultivation, forest land and biomass burning, all with machine-readable access and the citable DOI.

IPCC AFOLU dataset →
IPCC AR6 GWP values →

Provenance

MasterBrain v2026.284

Every number on this site comes from one versioned database

MasterBrain is the reference corpus behind GreenCalculus. It is versioned, dated, and every row names the published document it was read from.

Factors: 21,133
Source documents: 294each with a licence
Edition: v2026.2846 Nov 2026

See every source and its licence

Cite this page

APA

GreenCalculus. (2026). Land-Use Change Emission Factors. MasterBrain data edition v2026.284 (6 Nov 2026). https://greencalculus.com/data/afolu-land-use-change-factors/

BibTeX

@misc{greencalculus_afolu_land_use_change_factors_2026,
  author       = {{GreenCalculus}},
  title        = {Land-Use Change Emission Factors},
  year         = {2026},
  organization = {GreenCalculus},
  publisher    = {Numbers Publishing Pte. Ltd.},
  note         = {MasterBrain data edition v2026.284 (6 Nov 2026)},
  url          = {https://greencalculus.com/data/afolu-land-use-change-factors/}
}

Drawn from 21,133 factors across 294 source documents · edition v2026.284, updated 6 Nov 2026 · every source and its licence

Land-Use Change Emission Factors

The IPCC land carbon-stock method

Land-use change carbon

Crop residue parameters

Cropland biomass — perennial & agroforestry

Soil-carbon stock-change factors

Grassland biomass

Settlement trees & greenspace

Tree & crown biomass carbon

Greenspace & tree cover by biome (potential natural vegetation)

Application — formula & worked example

Framework requirements

Common reporting errors

Methodology, boundaries & uncertainty

Implementation & provenance chain

Data access — REST API & CSV

Citation guidance

Related on GreenCalculus

Frequently asked questions

Version history