Evaluating ambition for soil organic carbon sequestration and protection in nationally determined contributions

Wiese-Rozanova LD, Alacantara-Shivapatham V, Wollenberg E, Shelton S. 2020. Evaluating ambition for soil organic carbon sequestration and protection in nationally determined contributions. CCAFS Info Note. Wageningen, the Netherlands: CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS).

Increased international attention on agricultural soil organic carbon (SOC) has raised expectations of its potential contribution to both climate change mitigation and adaptation. Yet, debate on what is achievable and how to monitor or verify improvement in SOC has challenged progress. Since SOC is the primary terrestrial carbon pool, specification of SOC targets, policies and measures in agriculture may be pivotal to achieving global climate change targets, and thus appropriate to include in the nationally determined contributions (NDCs) to the 2015 Paris Agreement of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).