Mitigating Climate Change Through Food and Land Use

Overview

More than 30 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions arise from the land use sector. Thus, no strategy for mitigating global climate change can be complete or successful without reducing emissions from agriculture, forestry, and other land uses. Moreover, only land-based or “terrestrial” carbon sequestration offers the possibility today of large-scale removal of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, through plant photosynthesis.

Five Major Strategies for GHG mitigation

Five major strategies for reducing and sequestering terrestrial greenhouse gas emissions are: enriching soil carbon, farming with perennials, climate-friendly livestock production, protecting natural habitat, and restoring degraded watersheds and rangelands.

Recommended policy actions

1. Include the full range of terrestrial emission reduction, storage, and sequestration options in climate policy and investment.
2. Incorporate farming and land use investments in cap-and-trade systems.
3. Link terrestrial climate mitigation with adaptation, rural development, and conservation strategies.
4. Encourage large, area-based programs.
5. Encourage voluntary markets for greenhouse gas emission offsets from agriculture and land use.
6. Mobilize a worldwide, networked movement for climate-friendly food, forest, and other land-based production.