Acknowledgements PS, JFS, CC, NB, MK, CA and JO acknowledge support from the CIRCASA project which received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement n° 774378. The input of PS also contributes to the projects: DEVIL (NE/M021327/1), Assess-BECCS (funded by UKERC) and Soils-R7-GRREAT (NE/P019455/1). AS-C acknowledges support from the AGRISOST-CM project (S2018/BAA-4330) and MACSUR-JPI initiative, as well as the inspiration and support from the Spanish research networks REMEDIA and NUEVA. JA-F acknowledges support from Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad of Spain (project number AGL2017-84529-C3-1- R). The participation of NC and EW was funded as part of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), which is carried out with support from the CGIAR Trust Fund and through bilateral funding agreements (https://ccafs.cgiar.org/donors). The views expressed in this document cannot be taken to reflect the official opinions of the funding organizations. LS and SM acknowledge support from the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre and Global Research Alliance. This paper contributes to the work of the Soil Carbon Sequestration network of the Integrative Research Group of the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (https://globalresearchalliance.org/). ; Peer reviewed ; Publisher PDF
In: Quelle contribution de l'agriculture française à la réduction des émissions de gaz à effet de serre? Potentiel d'atténuation et coût de dix actions techniques, convention n° 11-60-C0021, convention n° 11-60-C0021,(2013)
L'agriculture française contribue pour près d'un cinquième aux émissions de gaz à effet de serre (GES). En même temps, elle représente un potentiel de stockage du carbone. L'ADEME et les ministères chargés de l'Agriculture et de l'Environnement ont sollicité l'INRA pour réaliser une étude de l'agriculture française pour déterminer et analyser une dizaine d'actions portant sur des pratiques agricoles et susceptibles de favoriser le stockage de carbone par l'agriculture ou de réduire ses émissions de GES.
In: Quelle contribution de l'agriculture française à la réduction des émissions de gaz à effet de serre? Potentiel d'atténuation et coût de dix actions techniques, convention n° 11-60-C0021, convention n° 11-60-C0021,, Inra - DEPE(2013)
L'agriculture française contribue pour près d'un cinquième aux émissions de gaz à effet de serre (GES). En même temps, elle représente un potentiel de stockage du carbone. L'ADEME et les ministères chargés de l'Agriculture et de l'Environnement ont sollicité l'INRA pour réaliser une étude de l'agriculture française pour déterminer et analyser une dizaine d'actions portant sur des pratiques agricoles et susceptibles de favoriser le stockage de carbone par l'agriculture ou de réduire ses émissions de GES.
AbstractSoil degradation is a critical and growing global problem. As the world population increases, pressure on soil also increases and the natural capital of soil faces continuing decline. International policy makers have recognized this and a range of initiatives to address it have emerged over recent years. However, a gap remains between what the science tells us about soil and its role in underpinning ecological and human sustainable development, and existing policy instruments for sustainable development. Functioning soil is necessary for ecosystem service delivery, climate change abatement, food and fiber production and fresh water storage. Yet key policy instruments and initiatives for sustainable development have under‐recognized the role of soil in addressing major challenges including food and water security, biodiversity loss, climate change and energy sustainability. Soil science has not been sufficiently translated to policy for sustainable development. Two underlying reasons for this are explored and the new concept of soil security is proposed to bridge the science–policy divide. Soil security is explored as a conceptual framework that could be used as the basis for a soil policy framework with soil carbon as an exemplar indicator.
We thank the authors for their thought-provoking comments on our paper. Most of the commentators agree that soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration is important for improving the quality of soil, however they argue that we have overstated the potential of soil carbon sequestration. We welcome the comments and appreciate that the issue of SOC sequestration has always been somewhat factious (Schlesinger, 2000). We shall address the significance of the quantity "4 per mille", reported sequestration rates, the limitation of carbon sequestration with time, and nutrient requirements. We clarify that our paper (Minasny et al., 2017) mainly deals with potentials for the 20 countries and regions, where SOC sequestration can also be seen as a way to improving the resilience of the soil to future climate change, that is, improving adaptation rather than mitigation. We believe that in some parts of the world where food security is threatened, the benefit of soil carbon management for adaptation should be stressed more than for mitigation. This is the reason why the 4 per mille initiative explicitly includes food security (Chabbi et al., 2017; Soussana et al., 2015). We need to add that the "4 per mille Soils for Food Security and Climate" initiative is just one of many national and global initiatives on SOC sequestration for mitigating climate change. The Intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soils (ITPS) of the Global Soil Partnership (GSP) discussed incorporating the topic of SOC in the IPCC Assessment Report (ARs), from AR6 onwards. The IPCC has also put a focus on soil in their upcoming special report "Climate Change and Land" (http://www.ipcc.ch/report/sr2/). The recent FAO Global Symposium (GSOC17) assembled experts engaged in FAO, GSP and its ITPS, IPCC, UNCCD-SPI and WMO activities to work together for the common goal of appropriate SOC management as part of overall sustainable soil management within the climate change mitigation and adaptation, sustainable development, Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) and food security agendas (http://www.fao.org/about/meetings/soil-organic-carbon-symposium/en/). The Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (GRA) focused on opportunities to reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and increase soil carbon sequestration while still helping to meet food security objectives (http://globalresearchalliance.org/about/). The Common Agriculture Policy in the EU is currently being revised to include the potential use of SOC as an indicator. The 4 per mille initiative was launched at COP21, where the Paris Agreement was adopted, and one of the main aims of the Paris Agreement is to stop the planet from warming an additional two Celsius degrees. The two-degree target, although suggested by scientists through modelling work, was chosen more for political and pragmatic reasons whereby countries could agree on a target that they could work towards (Tollefson, 2015). And of course, there are many scientific critiques of this target (Knutti et al., 2016). Similarly, the 4 per mille initiative comes from a politically-driven aspiration, and our paper (Minasny et al., 2017) is a response to such an aspiration, to seek and outline possibilities based on current knowledge. The important concept is that soil and agriculture are part of the solution, and it is an interim and evidence-based solution that we can implement. Now we shall respond to each of the commentaries.
We thank the authors for their thought-provoking comments on our paper. Most of the commentators agree that soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration is important for improving the quality of soil, however they argue that we have overstated the potential of soil carbon sequestration. We welcome the comments and appreciate that the issue of SOC sequestration has always been somewhat factious (Schlesinger, 2000). We shall address the significance of the quantity "4 per mille", reported sequestration rates, the limitation of carbon sequestration with time, and nutrient requirements. We clarify that our paper (Minasny et al., 2017) mainly deals with potentials for the 20 countries and regions, where SOC sequestration can also be seen as a way to improving the resilience of the soil to future climate change, that is, improving adaptation rather than mitigation. We believe that in some parts of the world where food security is threatened, the benefit of soil carbon management for adaptation should be stressed more than for mitigation. This is the reason why the 4 per mille initiative explicitly includes food security (Chabbi et al., 2017; Soussana et al., 2015). We need to add that the "4 per mille Soils for Food Security and Climate" initiative is just one of many national and global initiatives on SOC sequestration for mitigating climate change. The Intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soils (ITPS) of the Global Soil Partnership (GSP) discussed incorporating the topic of SOC in the IPCC Assessment Report (ARs), from AR6 onwards. The IPCC has also put a focus on soil in their upcoming special report "Climate Change and Land" (http://www.ipcc.ch/report/sr2/). The recent FAO Global Symposium (GSOC17) assembled experts engaged in FAO, GSP and its ITPS, IPCC, UNCCD-SPI and WMO activities to work together for the common goal of appropriate SOC management as part of overall sustainable soil management within the climate change mitigation and adaptation, sustainable development, Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) and food security agendas (http://www.fao.org/about/meetings/soil-organic-carbon-symposium/en/). The Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (GRA) focused on opportunities to reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and increase soil carbon sequestration while still helping to meet food security objectives (http://globalresearchalliance.org/about/). The Common Agriculture Policy in the EU is currently being revised to include the potential use of SOC as an indicator. The 4 per mille initiative was launched at COP21, where the Paris Agreement was adopted, and one of the main aims of the Paris Agreement is to stop the planet from warming an additional two Celsius degrees. The two-degree target, although suggested by scientists through modelling work, was chosen more for political and pragmatic reasons whereby countries could agree on a target that they could work towards (Tollefson, 2015). And of course, there are many scientific critiques of this target (Knutti et al., 2016). Similarly, the 4 per mille initiative comes from a politically-driven aspiration, and our paper (Minasny et al., 2017) is a response to such an aspiration, to seek and outline possibilities based on current knowledge. The important concept is that soil and agriculture are part of the solution, and it is an interim and evidence-based solution that we can implement. Now we shall respond to each of the commentaries.
L'initiative "4 pour mille : les sols pour la sécurité alimentaire et le climat" propose d'augmenter chaque année d'un quatre millième le stock de carbone présent dans tous les sols du monde. À la demande de l'Ademe et du ministère de l'Agriculture et de l'Alimentation, l'Inra (devenu aujourd'hui INRAE) a conduit une étude, centrée sur la France métropolitaine, visant à estimer le potentiel de stockage de carbone des sols agricoles et forestiers et, in fine, à mesurer la contribution potentielle de ce levier à l'objectif de réduction des émissions nettes de gaz à effet de serre. Diverses pratiques candidates (cultures intermédiaires, apport de nouvelles ressources organiques, gestion des prairies, agroforesterie…) ont été évaluées. Les résultats obtenus ont montré une forte variabilité du stockage additionnel de carbone. L'étude a également permis d'estimer le coût supplémentaire, pour les agriculteurs, de mise en oeuvre de ces pratiques de stockage, puis une allocation de l'effort de stockage entre les pratiques et les régions a été effectuée. Ces données permettront aux différents acteurs concernés de faire les meilleurs choix pour stocker davantage de carbone dans les sols. Cet ouvrage s'adresse aux décideurs chargés de l'élaboration des politiques publiques climatiques dans le domaine agricole, aux responsables territoriaux, aux aménageurs, aux ingénieurs et techniciens, aux agriculteurs et à l'ensemble des citoyens intéressés par la problématique de l'agriculture et du changement climatique.
