scholarly journals Temperate Regenerative Agriculture; a win-win for soil carbon and crop yield?

Author(s):  
Matthew Jordon ◽  
Kathy Willis ◽  
Paul-Christian Bürkner ◽  
Neal Haddaway ◽  
Pete Smith ◽  
...  

Abstract Regenerative Agriculture proposes to contribute to climate change mitigation and increased food production through improved yields by building soil organic carbon (SOC). We examine three Regenerative practices: reducing tillage intensity, cover cropping and including a grass-based phase in arable rotations (ley-arable systems). Our Bayesian meta-analysis of 195 paired SOC and crop yield observations from published studies finds statistically significant increases in SOC concentration for reduced tillage intensity (0.06 g C.100g-1) and ley-arable systems (0.05 g C.100-1g per year of ley) compared to conventional practice over an average study duration of 15 years, but no effect of cover crops. None of these practices come at a cost to yield during cropping years. However, we find no evidence of a win-win between soil carbon sequestration and enhanced agricultural productivity. Further, the small magnitude of SOC increases suggests a limited role for these Regenerative practices in climate change mitigation strategies in temperate regions.

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 3170
Author(s):  
Avri Eitan

Evidence shows that global climate change is increasing over time, and requires the adoption of a variety of coping methods. As an alternative for conventional electricity systems, renewable energies are considered to be an important policy tool for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and therefore, they play an important role in climate change mitigation strategies. Renewable energies, however, may also play a crucial role in climate change adaptation strategies because they can reduce the vulnerability of energy systems to extreme events. The paper examines whether policy-makers in Israel tend to focus on mitigation strategies or on adaptation strategies in renewable energy policy discourse. The results indicate that despite Israel’s minor impact on global greenhouse gas emissions, policy-makers focus more on promoting renewable energies as a climate change mitigation strategy rather than an adaptation strategy. These findings shed light on the important role of international influence—which tends to emphasize mitigation over adaptation—in motivating the domestic policy discourse on renewable energy as a coping method with climate change.


2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergio Colombo ◽  
Beatriz Rocamora-Montiel

The climate change mitigation potential of olive farming has been widely acknowledged. It has particular relevance in regions such as Andalusia (southern Spain) where olive growing is a key land use activity with significant social, economic and environmental implications. This potential of olive farming, however, is not adequately embodied in current Agri-Environmental Climate Schemes (AECS), which often fail to deliver the expected outcomes. The present article proposes an alternative strategy based on a result-oriented approach to AECS for enhancing soil carbon sequestration in Andalusian olive growing. After reviewing the current legal and institutional situation which forbids the wide application of result-oriented agri-environmental schemes, we suggest the use of alternative territorial governance arrangements, such as hybrid governance structures (HGS), as a framework to support the implementation of a result-oriented approach in the specific case of olive growing. Results indicate that the application of HGS can provide valuable benefits in terms of soil carbon storage. The information provided may be useful in the proposed new legislative framework, at both European and regional level, to promote more sustainable farming systems.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 2510
Author(s):  
Hubert Paluš ◽  
Ján Parobek ◽  
Martin Moravčík ◽  
Miroslav Kovalčík ◽  
Michal Dzian ◽  
...  

The forestry and forest-based sector play a significant role in climate change mitigation strategies and can contribute to the achievement of a climate-neutral economy. In this context, the ability of harvested wood products (HWP) to sequester carbon is of significant importance. The objective of this work is to make a projection of climate change mitigation potential of HWP, under different scenarios of wood utilization in Slovakia. This study builds on the comparison of different scenarios of industrial wood utilization till 2035 and presents the resulting impacts on the national carbon balance. The results suggest that the development of timber supplies after 2020 in Slovakia will be influenced, in particular, by the future changes in the age distribution and tree species composition as well as the extent of future accidental felling. Consequently, a predicted structure and availability of wood resources in Slovakia will be reflected in a higher share of the production of products with shorter life cycle and thus will negatively affect the carbon pool in HWP. By comparing the results of the four designed scenarios, it follows that the scenario with the greatest mitigation potential, is the one assuming the optimal use of wood assortments and limitation of industrial roundwood foreign trade.


Author(s):  
Hung Ho ◽  
Sawaid Abbas ◽  
Jinxin Yang ◽  
Rui Zhu ◽  
Man Wong

Climate variability has been documented as being key to influencing human wellbeing across cities as it is linked to mortality and illness due to changes in the perceived weather cycle. Many studies have investigated the impact of summer temperature on human health and have proposed mitigation strategies for summer heat waves. However, sub-tropical cities are still experiencing winter temperature variations. Increasing winter perceived temperature through the decades may soon affect city wellbeing, due to a larger temperature change between normal winter days and extreme cold events, which may cause higher health risk due to lack of adaptation and self-preparedness. Therefore, winter perceived temperature should also be considered and integrated in urban sustainable planning. This study has integrated the increasing winter perceived temperature as a factor for developing spatiotemporal protocols for mitigating the adverse impact of climate change. Land surface temperature (LST) derived from satellite images and building data extracted from aerial photographs were used to simulate the adjusted wind chill equivalent temperature (AWCET) particularly for sub-tropical scenarios between 1990 and 2010 of the Kowloon Peninsula, Hong Kong. Compared with perceived temperature based on the representative station located at the headquarters of the Hong Kong Observatory, the temperature of half the study area in the Kowloon Peninsula has raised by 1.5 °C. The areas with less green space and less public open space in 2010 show higher relative temperatures. Socioeconomically deprived areas (e.g., areas with lower median monthly income) may suffer more from this scenario, but not all types of socioeconomic disparities are associated with poor sustainable planning. Based on our results and the “no-one left behind” guideline from the United Nations, climate change mitigation should be conducted by targeting socioeconomic neighborhoods more than just aging communities.


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