JP NEWS AND MEDIA Tapping the land for climate solutions Mark Dwortzan | MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change Monday, October 3, 2022

To achieve a stable climate will require rapid, dramatic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions resulting from human activities. This can be done by transitioning energy generation from fossil fuels to clean energy sources, and by removing those gases—primarily carbon dioxide (CO2)— from the atmosphere. The latter approach relies on the development of technologies that capture the gas from the air and store it underground, and the cultivation of “nature-based solutions” that increase ground-level absorption of airborne CO2.

To draw down enough carbon dioxide to make a significant contribution to global efforts to combat climate change, such nature-based solutions will require a massive deployment of agriculture, forestry and other land-use (AFOLU) practices. At the same time, these solutions must be sustainable, minimizing the risk of unintended and unequally distributed negative consequences.

To help advance AFOLU best practices, the Foresight and Metrics Research Initiative of the CGIARMIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, and Oxford University’s Oxford Martin School convened a workshop “Pathways for Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (PAFOLU) in Support of Sustainable Development, Equitable Solutions and a Stable Climate” at Oxford University and on Zoom on September 14-15.