Protecting and Restoring Soils Could Remove 5.5 Billion Tonnes of CO2 a Year – EcoWatch

Shift the incentive structures in agriculture towards payments for the range of ecosystem services, food, climate, water and biodiversity that agriculture can provide to society,” she told AFP.”

Protecting and Restoring Soils Could Remove 5.5 Billion Tonnes of CO2 a Year – EcoWatch

Restoring and protecting the world’s soil could remove the equivalent of the U.S.’s annual greenhouse gas emissions from the atmosphere.

That’s the conclusion of a study published in Nature Sustainability Monday, which set out to explore the potential of soil as a natural solution to the climate crisis.

“I talk about soil as being the forgotten solution,” study lead author and Nature Conservancy chief soil scientist Dr. Deborah Bossio told Carbon Brief. “What we’re really trying to emphasize is that soil is important and so it should not be ignored, but also not exaggerated.”

The study found that soil made up 25 percent of the potential of natural climate solutions — the term for enhancing the ability of Earth’s ecosystems to suck carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Boosting soil’s carbon-gulping capacities and protecting existing soil could remove a total of 23.8 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide, or 5.5 billion tonnes a year, AFP reported.

The research found that 40 percent of this drawdown could be achieved simply by leaving existing healthy soils alone. That’s because the top meter (approximately 3.28 feet) of soil contains three times the amount of carbon in the atmosphere as it absorbs decomposing plants, Carbon Brief explained. But agriculture can disturb this process.

“Most of the ongoing destruction of these ecosystems is about expanding the footprint of agriculture, so slowing or halting that expansion is an important strategy,” Bossio told AFP.