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The US rejoined the Paris Agreement in 2021 with a targeted 50–52% reduction in net GHG emissions in 2030 relative to 2005. Within the US's nationally determined contributions, several land-based mitigation options were submitted, targeting the removal of 0.4–1.3 GtCO2 yr−1 in 2030 compared to the net flux in 2010. Acknowledging disagreement has existed on both technological and economic feasibility levels of soil C sequestration adoption and practices, this review explores and evaluates the research findings and needs for six concepts: (1) permanence; (2) additionality; (3) leakage; (4) uncertainty; (5) transaction costs; and (6) heat-trapping ability of different gases. These concepts are crucial for the effective implementation of soil C sequestration projects since they help establish robust and integrated methodologies for measurement, verification, and issuance of carbon credits. In turn, they help ensure that environmental, social, and economic benefits are accurately assessed and credibly reported, enhancing the integrity of carbon markets and contributing to global climate mitigation efforts. This review also evaluates the existing and potential market opportunities for agricultural production with C sequestration and "climate- smart" farming practices. Current barriers to, research needs for, and policy considerations regarding soil C sequestration strategies are also stated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The U.S. dairy sector is a significant emitter of methane and nitrous oxide, with the US EPA estimating it produced around 90 Tg CO2 eq. in 2021. This paper reviews the literature on and evaluates various mitigation actions for reducing GHG emissions in the U.S. dairy sector, focusing on both direct and indirect emission sources. We conducted a narrative literature review based on the cradle to gate life-cycle assessment method, covering the entire dairy supply chain up until milk enters retail establishments, including dairy and feed producing farm practices, processing, transportation, and their associated emissions/costs. The papers included were selected over a three year process depending on discussions with experts and issues mentioned in the emerging literature. We review significant opportunities for the U.S. dairy sector to reduce emissions, particularly through improved enteric fermentation and manure management practices. Additionally, we cover the potential for mitigating indirect emissions from feed production, processing, and transportation, areas less frequently covered in existing studies. This review also covers a gap in the literature by integrating economic findings including cost analysis and incentives to mitigate based on the social value of emissions reductions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper employs the recently proposed climate penalty model to estimate season-specific climate change impacts on Chinese winter wheat yields and also reveals the effects of long-run adaptions by comparing the short-run and long-run estimates identified from the model. We find that Spring freezing days are critical as we estimate small yield gains when considering a reduction in the number of freezing days (induced by global warming), as opposed to large yield losses when such effects are omitted. We also find substantial influences of adaptation effects that could reverse the sign of climate change impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on soil carbon sequestration (SCS) as a mitigation strategy for climate change, covering the reasons for the current interest in SCS, the physical characteristics of sequestering carbon in agricultural soils, and factors influencing the value of sequestered carbon. It discussion includes the importance of SCS in addressing greenhouse gas emissions, complying with international agreements such as the Paris Agreement.

This article investigates how climate influences the value of adding preprocessing depots to a second-generation biorefinery's supply chain. This is vital because humidity determines the amount of dry matter loss—exponential decay of energy content—suffered by biomass stored without preprocessing. The large volume of biomass required to fuel a biorefinery poses challenges in storage and in transportation. Further complications arise because the biomass is produced seasonally by hundreds of growers. Thus, recent failures of biorefineries may have been avoided, and future success may be achieved, by adding an intermediate layer to a biorefinery's supply chain. A rigorous climate-based analysis of cost functions for each potential grower/depot pair leads to a stochastic program that optimizes the locations of depots, the assignment of growers to depots, and the volume of biomass stored fieldside vs. the volume stored as pelleted feedstock at depots. A computational study reveals that the humidity of the climate has much greater influence on the value of adding pre-processing depots to a second-generation biofuel supply chain than does transportation consolidation or any other parameter, endogenous or exogenous. Under favorable circumstances, our process reduces a biorefinery's costs by over 30%, on average. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Livestock production is a valuable part of US agriculture as it contributes 50% of total agricultural value. Climate change is likely a threat to livestock production, but research regarding the impact of climate change on livestock sectors is limited. This paper examines how climate change affects livestock mix and location. Specifically, we examine climate effects on grazing animals and, in particular, on beef cattle, dairy cattle, goats, and sheep. We examine this in the US based on county-level data by using fractional multinomial logit econometrics. Our results show that climate is an influential determinant of where livestock herds are located and species mix. The impacts of climate vary by species and region. We also find significant influences from geographic characteristics and animal product prices. Subsequently, we project how climate change would influence future livestock mix and location. It reveals a likely growth in beef cow land shares across most of the US with the largest gains in the northwest. We also find substitutions between species as climate change progresses with dairy cows exhibiting the largest reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]