A first-of-its-kind catalog that compiles key information on land-based solutions for tackling climate change, both in terms of mitigation and adaptation, has been developed by an international team of researchers led by CMCC. “By mapping out sustainable land-use strategies, the catalog offers insights into how land management and human behaviour can shape the future climate, making it an invaluable resource for science-based decision-making,” says CMCC researcher and lead author Maria Vincenza Chiriacò.

Land is at the forefront of climate action, playing a key role in both adaptation and mitigation at global, EU, and local levels. With its various uses, including cropland, grassland, wetlands, forests, and settlements, it can act as a carbon sink when absorbing more carbon from the atmosphere than it emits, or a carbon source when releasing carbon into the atmosphere, for instance, through deforestation or soil disturbance.

To enhance the role of the land sector, it is essential to engage and inform all stakeholders – including landowners, managers, researchers, policymakers, and citizens – about the most effective sustainable land-based solutions and behavioral changes needed.

A new paper, published in Scientific Data of Nature, provides unique, publicly available, reliable, and ready-to-use information related to implementing Land-based Adaptation and Mitigation Solutions (LAMS) in the form of a catalog. From implementing wind energy products to applying precision farming and artificial intelligence in agricultural practices, the catalog offers an innovative tool for analysing context specific cost-benefits of a range of LAMS.

“Currently, Europe’s land sector removes more greenhouse gases than it releases, but this capacity has significantly decreased in recent years,” says CMCC researcher and lead author, Maria Vincenza Chiriacò. “Reversing this declining trend and strengthening the EU’s land-based carbon sink is essential to achieving climate neutrality and ensuring a resilient, sustainable future.”

The LAMS catalog outlined in the paper collects meaningful quantitative and qualitative information on 60 solutions, based on an extensive literature review, characterised according to a set of specifications, including mitigation and adaptation potential, cost of implementation, suitability factors, synergies and trade-offs, as well as drivers and barriers to implementation.

The solutions outlined in the catalog, which can be downloaded on Figshare, range from agroforestry solutions to shifts in people’s diets, renewable energy projects, water-use efficiency and limiting urban sprawl, to mention just a few. By outlining the impacts and resources needed for the implementation of each of these 60 solutions, the catalog could provide crucial information for policymakers trying to implement the most cost-effective solutions for their own areas of operations.

General process implemented for the identification of the 60 LAMS and outline of the different categories of qualitative and quantitative information collected for each LAMS, including adaptation and mitigation potential, cost of implementation, suitability factors, drivers and barriers, synergies and trade-off. Source: Chiriacò et al 2025

The catalog represents a reliable, science-based tool that is useful for different users’ needs, including valuable references for deriving context-specific quantitative inputs to simulate and evaluate the performance of solutions over time using modelling tools, such as Integrated Assessment Models at any scale.

Designed as a strategic tool, the catalogue could therefore serve policymakers and land managers as they attempt to make more informed decisions on land planning and behavioral policies affecting land use, as well as researchers and specifically modelers who can now access a solid foundation of detailed qualitative and quantitative information on 60 LAMS for projections and scenario-building.

“By mapping out sustainable land-use strategies, the catalog offers insights into how land management and human behaviour can shape the future climate, making it an invaluable resource for science-based decision-making,” says Chiriacò

The LAMS catalogue was made possible through a major collaborative effort involving multiple research institutions across Europe, with CMCC playing a leading role, under the framework of the RethinkAction Horizon 2020 project, funded by the European Commission.

“Implementing sustainable land use and management solutions, alongside promoting responsible behavioral and lifestyle changes, is crucial to enhancing the role of land as a carbon sink and achieving climate change mitigation goals” says Chiriacò. “These solutions not only support emissions reduction and carbon removal but often also strengthen resilience and adaptation capacity, reducing the exposure to risks related to climate change hazards such as floods, droughts, water scarcity, and heat stress.”

Providing landowners, managers, researchers, policymakers, and citizens with robust and comprehensive knowledge on the most effective sustainable land-based solutions and behavioural changes and simulating their performance leveraging modeling tools like Integrated Assessment Models is essential to guiding long-term sustainable land planning.

For more information:

Chiriacò, M.V., Dămătîrcă, C., Abd Alla, S. et al. A catalogue of land-based adaptation and mitigation solutions to tackle climate change. Sci Data 12, 166 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-025-04484-0

The LAMS catalog is available here.