Cited by 1,070Land Use and Ecosystem ServicesAgriculture Sustainability and Environmental ImpactClimate change impacts on agriculture

Land-use futures in the shared socio-economic pathways

Open access
Popp, Alexander, Calvin, Katherine, Fujimori, Shinichiro, Havlik, Petr, Humpenöder, Florian, Stehfest, Elke, Bodirsky, Benjamin Leon, Dietrich, Jan Philipp +16 more·2017·Global Environmental Change

Abstract

• Narratives for the Shared Socio-Economic Pathways (SSPs) focusing on the land sector are presented. • Integrated Assessment Models have been applied for the SSPs to assess potential future developments for land use, greenhouse gas emissions, food provision and prices. • Model results reflect the general storylines of the SSPs and indicate a broad range of potential land-use futures. • SSP-based land use pathways aim at supporting future climate research, climate impact analysis, biodiversity research and sustainability science. In the future, the land system will be facing new intersecting challenges. While food demand, especially for resource-intensive livestock based commodities, is expected to increase, the terrestrial system has large potentials for climate change mitigation through improved agricultural management, providing biomass for bioenergy, and conserving or even enhancing carbon stocks of ecosystems. However, uncertainties in future socio-economic land use drivers may result in very different land-use dynamics and consequences for land-based ecosystem services. This is the first study with a systematic interpretation of the Shared Socio-Economic Pathways (SSPs) in terms of possible land-use changes and their consequences for the agricultural system, food provision and prices as well as greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, five alternative Integrated Assessment Models with distinctive land-use modules have been used for the translation of the SSP narratives into quantitative projections. The model results reflect the general storylines of the SSPs and indicate a broad range of potential land-use futures with global agricultural land of 4900 mio ha in 2005 decreasing by 743 mio ha until 2100 at the lower (SSP1) and increasing by 1080 mio ha (SSP3) at the upper end. Greenhouse gas emissions from land use and land use change, as a direct outcome of these diverse land-use dynamics, and agricultural production systems differ strongly across SSPs (e.g. cumulative land use change emissions between 2005 and 2100 range from −54 to 402 Gt CO 2 ). The inclusion of land-based mitigation efforts, particularly those in the most ambitious mitigation scenarios, further broadens the range of potential land futures and can strongly affect greenhouse gas dynamics and food prices. In general, it can be concluded that low demand for agricultural commodities, rapid growth in agricultural productivity and globalized trade, all most pronounced in a SSP1 world, have the potential to enhance the extent of natural ecosystems, lead to lowest greenhouse gas emissions from the land system and decrease food prices over time. The SSP-based land use pathways presented in this paper aim at supporting future climate research and provide the basis for further regional integrated assessments, biodiversity research and climate impact analysis.

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  1. Carpenter, S., Pingali, P., 2005. Millennium Ecosystem Assessment-Scenarios Assessment. Island Press, Washington, DC.
  2. Riahi, K., Dentener, F., Gielen, D., Grubler, A., Jewell, J., Klimont, Z., et al (2012). Global Energy Assessment Chapter 17: Energy Pathways for Sustainable Development. In Global Energy Assessment -Toward a Sustainable Future, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York, NY, USA and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria, pp. 1203-1306.

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Authors
Popp, A., Calvin, K., Fujimori, S., Havlik, P., Humpenöder, F., Stehfest, E., Bodirsky, B. L., Dietrich, J. P., Doelmann, J. C., Gusti, M., Hasegawa, T., Kyle, P., Obersteiner, M., Tabeau, A., Takahashi, K., Valin, H., Waldhoff, S., Weindl, I., Wise, M., Kriegler, E., Lotze-Campen, H., Fricko, O., Riahi, K., & Vuuren, D. P. V.
Affiliations
  • Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (DE)
  • Joint Global Change Research Institute (US)
  • National Institute for Environmental Studies (JP)
  • Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (NL)
  • Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (AU)
  • International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (AT)
  • Wageningen University & Research (NL)
  • Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy (DE)
  • Utrecht University (NL)
Corresponding author
Popp, Alexander
Venue
Global Environmental Change
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2017-01
Volume
42
Pages
331-345
ISSN
0959-3780 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2541697905
Cited by
1,070
References
68
Citations by year
2026: 98 · 2025: 105 · 2024: 157 · 2023: 155 · 2022: 127 · 2021: 128 · 2020: 111 · 2019: 77 · 2018: 75 · 2017: 27 · 2016: 8 · 2014: 1
FWCI
46.11
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Global Environmental Change (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Socio-Environmental Systems Modeling (acceptedVersion, cc-by)
  • IIASA PURE (International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis) (acceptedVersion)
  • Utrecht University Repository (Utrecht University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • RENATE (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • OSTI OAI (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information) (submittedVersion)
  • Publication Database PIK (Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK)) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • RENATE (cc-by)
Funders
  • European Union’s Seventh Framework Program (603542)
  • European Union-funded project An integration of mitigation and adaptation options for sustainable livestock production under climate change (266018)
  • Global Environmental Research Fund (2-1402)
  • Ministry of the Environment, Japan
  • Integrated Assessment Research Program in the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Land Use and Ecosystem Services
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Agriculture Sustainability and Environmental Impact
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Climate change impacts on agriculture
Keywords
land use change, greenhouse gas emissions, food prices, climate change mitigation, bioenergy, carbon stocks, agricultural productivity, food demand, integrated assessment models, natural ecosystems, livestock products, biodiversity conservation, sustainability scenarios, climate impact assessment

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