To achieve environmental objectives, including ambitious targets like low and even net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, governments are increasingly looking at mitigation opportunities across different sectors, including the agriculture, forestry, and other land use (AFOLU) sectors.
AFOLU sectors, unlike others, have the potential to substantially reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, including carbon dioxide (CO2) and the more potent methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O), and to sequester carbon.
The Policy Inventory for Mitigation Actions in the Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use sectors (PIMA-AFOLU) provides information on direct and indirect climate change mitigation policies that have been planned or adopted by 53 countries. These AFOLU policies may directly aim to support mitigation (direct mitigation policies) or may support mitigation efforts through co-benefits (indirect mitigation policies) including assumed downstream effects. For example, a policy which sets nitrogen concentration limits in waterbodies may restrict agricultural fertiliser use around waterways thereby reducing nitrous oxide emissions. This broad coverage offers a unique international view of AFOLU mitigation policies, highlighting the diversity of measures undertaken in this area from different perspectives.
Through PIMA-AFOLU’s coverage of policies from 53 countries included in the Agricultural Monitoring and Evaluation reports, the database includes approximately 1 500 direct and indirect climate change mitigation policies adopted or planned up until early 2025. The database highlights the strategies and measures taken by countries to support environmental and mitigation actions, thus serving as a knowledge-sharing platform.
It should be noted that the PIMA-AFOLU inventories relevant policies without gauging of their effectiveness or efficiency. Policies included in PIMA-AFOLU were identified by governments in collaboration with the OECD as potentially supporting mitigation efforts, and evaluation of their mitigation effects is not a requirement for inclusion. Some policies may have been evaluated, others not.
Mitigation policies do not exist in isolation. Some existing policies (e.g. policies which can encourage production or input use that will induce GHG emissions (OECD, 2022[1]) may affect GHG emissions and unintentionally undermine mitigation efforts. While PIMA-AFOLU focuses on policies that support climate mitigation, reforming counteracting policy signals will be needed to help meet emission reduction goals.