Agriculture is a problem as well as a potential solution. It is responsible for 14% of global GHG emissions or 6.8 Gt of CO2e per year (per FAO), but it also has high mitigation potential (up to 6 Gt of CO2e per year by 2030) primarily through soil carbon sequestration. About 74% of emissions from agriculture originate in developing countries, and 70% of the mitigation could be realized in the same regions. The key is to build organic matter in soils and keep it there for the long term. In addition, fertilizer use, rice production and livestock management all offer further mitigation potential for non-carbon GHG emissions.
Combined with the emissions from deforestation (12-17%), at least a quarter of annual global GHG emissions can be traced to agriculture and land-use changes driven by agriculture and logging. It appears that COP15 did make some progress in tackling emissions from deforestation and agriculture. An international working group is to be formed to devise ways to mitigate emissions from agriculture, and countries would be compensated for preserving forests and other natural landscapes.
Progress is hard and COP15 disappointed a lot of people, but these were a couple of bright spots to emerge from the chaos.
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