ABSTRACT
Human activities are significantly altering the carbon cycle through energy and land-use practices and policies. In 1992, governments acknowledged that this human perturbation to the carbon cycle is changing the Earth's climate, and most have signed and ratified the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Marrakech Accords included several key principles: Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) activities must contribute to the conservation of biodiversity and sustainable use of natural resources. The Marrakech Accords also stated that all carbon pools must be accounted, i.e., above-ground biomass, below-ground biomass, litter, dead wood, and soil organic carbon. The Marrakech Accords limited the eligibility of LULUCF activities under the clean development mechanism in the first commitment period to afforestation and reforestation projects. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change also estimated the potential global carbon uptake using LULUCF activities over the next 50 years for activities started after 1990, not including any contribution from the current terrestrial uptake.
