January 1, 2016Journal of Soil and Water Conservation
Beyond COP 21: Potential and challenges of the “4 per Thousand” initiative
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Overview
Policy analysis demonstrates substantial soil organic carbon sequestration capacity across global croplands, highlighting agriculture's potential role in climate change mitigation.
Key Points
- To assess the theoretical potential and implementation challenges of the COP21 '4 per Thousand' initiative aimed at increasing global soil organic carbon.
- Evaluated global adoption strategies for recommended soil management practices, including conservation agriculture, mulch farming, cover cropping, agroforestry, and biochar application.
- Estimated the carbon sink capacity of 1,400 million hectares of cropland soils alongside grazing, forest, and degraded lands over a 50- to 75-year timeframe.
- Cropland soils can theoretically sequester 0.8 to 1.2 t ha−1 y−1 (up to 62 t ha−1 over 50 to 75 years) at the targeted 0.4% annual rate down to a 40 cm depth.
- Global cropland soils exhibit a cumulative carbon sink capacity of approximately 88 Gt (~97 billion tons) across 1,400 Mha, with supplementary sink potential in grazing and degraded lands.
Cite This Study
Rattan Lal (2016) studied this question.