Climate stabilization wedges are proposed as a greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation framework because no single technology or economic sector can sufficiently reduce emissions to acceptable levels. Wedges are defined as strategies that contribute to GHG mitigation which in aggregate achieve a particular goal. Agriculture is responsible for approximately 22% of anthropogenic GHG emissions at the global scale and about 7% of total emissions in the US. At the global scale, land use change is the most important agricultural GHG source, while in the US land use change is a large GHG sink. Global GHG emissions have increased faster than predicted, so more aggressive mitigation is required than previously thought. To avoid the most dangerous risks of climate change, mitigation of ~ 9,000 Tg C equivalents are required by 2030. Can the agricultural sector reduce GHG emissions and still supply adequate food, fiber, and energy for a growing and increasingly affluent global population?
Results/Conclusions
We estimate that agriculture could provide wedges of 1350 to 3900 Tg C under realization of technological and human behavior mitigation potentials. Improved crop, forest, and livestock management can decrease N2O and CH4 emissions and increase carbon sequestration. Consuming fewer livestock products can reduce emissions from developed countries, while agricultural intensification using available technologies can reduce emissions and improve nutrition in developing countries. The mitigation wedges have varying economic costs, but also co-benefits. Technologies such as stabilized fertilizers and crop varieties engineered to increase nutrient use efficiency and pest resistance decrease GHG emissions and improve air and water quality. Decreasing luxury protein and calorie consumption in developed countries improves health, while avoided deforestation and reforestation in developing countries helps maintain biodiversity.