A dataset of emissions and removals from scenarios and pathways within long-term national climate strategies – the LTS-SP dataset

Abstract

Long-term low emission development strategies (LT-LEDS), supported by Article 4, paragraph 19, of the Paris Agreement, present scenarios and pathways aligned with national long-term climate targets. There is a growing interest in understanding whether the collective effort of national climate plans align with the goals of the Paris Agreement, alongside the feasibility, sectoral focus, and the balance of emissions and removals seen in national scenarios. Here we introduce the long-term strategy scenarios and pathways (LTS-SP) dataset, a dataset presenting scenarios and pathways detailed within LT-LEDS or similar long-term strategies. We detail the level of total and sectoral greenhouse gas emissions in 2050, or the year in which net zero is achieved, alongside the emissions and removals from land-use, land-use change, and forestry (LULUCF) and removals from engineered carbon dioxide removal (CDR) methods. We provide a comprehensive overview of our procedure and compare our dataset with current published estimates. We end by summarising several caveats to our dataset, detailing the limitations of LT-LEDS, and their use in climate policy research.