U.S. Climate Plan Submitted to the U.N., Role of Agriculture in Mitigation Mostly Ignored

On March 31, the White House submitted to the United Nations its plan to cut carbon emissions between 26 to 28 percent below 2005 levels, by 2025. The United States joined the European Union, Switzerland, Norway, Russia and Mexico – together representing 50 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions -- in submitting its plan, known as an Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC).  These plans will then be factored into the international climate negotiations taking place in Paris in December; countries who delay submitting plans may hinder a broader agreement in Paris.

There are no real surprises in the plan the United States submitted to the U.N. Originally announced in November as part of a U.S.-China bilateral agreement, Brian Deese, Senior Advisor to President Obama stated, ““The United States’ target is ambitious and achievable, and we have the tools we need to reach it.” The plan includes the EPA’s proposed Clean Power Plan, which will require carbon reductions from existing power plants, as well as fuel efficiency, energy efficiency and methane emissions.  

However, while the plan does mention the White House’s ‘Strategy to Cut Methane Emissions’ and the more agriculturally-focused ‘Biogas Roadmap,’ these voluntary measures do not include other greenhouse gases beyond methane. Nor does any aspect of the U.S. plan recognize or discuss the significant role that agriculture and soil carbon play in climate change – or the great potential available in sequestering additional carbon in soils.

The plan does mention the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA), which promulgated the Renewable Fuel Standard, but it’s unclear what role renewable fuels and biobased products could play in the U.S. GHG mitigation strategy.  This led National Farmers Union President Roger Johnson to state, “The President is ignoring agriculture’s great potential to help the country cut GHG emissions and mitigate climate change by excluding the RFS from his plan.”  Indeed, without including transportation fuels, 40 percent of U.S. emissions are excluded, or at best, addressed tangentially.

Johnson also noted that farmers and ranchers are already feeling the impacts of climate change, and noted that conservation measures “can cut GHG emissions and sequester carbon in working soils.”  And while measurement of soil organic carbon (SOC) is very complicated, research has shown that conservation practices deployed in organic farming can sequester huge amounts of carbon.  

Scientists at Rodale Institute have been conducting the longest running side-by-side conventional and organics farming trial.  They have found that organic practices in corn and soybean fields, such as no-till, cover cropping and organic manures, increase levels of soil carbon relative to conventional practices.  Not only does improving soil organic carbon provide an additional carbon sink, it markedly improves soil’s water and nutrient-holding ability.  These practices build better soils, which require less fossil-based inputs such as pesticides and fertilizers.  

Yet, quantifying these practices as climate change mitigation strategies are difficult, and thus far, are being ignored in the U.S. climate plan, as well as more broadly by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).  Fears of using soil organic carbon as a “pay to pollute” mechanism may have stifled farming’s potential as a climate mitigation tool.  Yet, soils worldwide are already significantly degraded, and pose a great threat to continued agricultural productivity.  Improving soil organic carbon storage is simply a side benefit to restoring soil health.  

Agroecology, the study of ecological agricultural interactions has fostered ways of farming that mimics natural systems as closely as possible.  Practices like no-till and cover cropping can reduce fossil inputs to agricultural production while simultaneously improving soil organic carbon.  Despite these well-known benefits – the U.S. plan ignores the role that agriculture could play in climate change mitigation – while simultaneously providing food, animal feed, fuels, fertilizers and feedstocks for chemicals.

For more information see: 

The Farming Systems Trial, Rodale Institute

NFU Concerned by Omission of RFS from President’s Plan to Cut GHG Emissions, National Fermers Union

Obama Administration Submits Greenhouse Reduction Targets, EESI