Abstract
Soils have received comparatively little attention in international climate policy. This disregard does not reflect their relevance as a source of emissions and the necessity to take actions to adapt to climate change to ensure food security. Croplands and pastures are the largest sources of global CH4 and N2O, in particular through rice fields, peatland draining and fertilizer application. They are also the planet’s largest storage of carbon after oceans. Nevertheless, challenges related to measuring the climate impact of soil management, concerns about trade implications of agricultural mitigation, and difficulties deploying finance to create climate resilient landscape have long delayed important climate action. The recently adopted Paris Agreement holds the potential for renewed impetus into actions that help landscapes to adapt to climate change while reducing emissions, such as agroforestry, conservation agriculture, pasture and landscape management. The objective of this article is to provide an overview of the consideration of soils in the context of international climate change policy and to discuss how soil protection could be strengthened building on the Paris Agreement as a positive momentum for climate action.
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- 1.
FAO (2011), p. 25.
- 2.
IPCC (2001).
- 3.
IPCC (2014), p. 29.
- 4.
IPCC (2014), p. 29.
- 5.
Dickie et al. (2014), p. 14.
- 6.
Lal (2004a), p. 2.
- 7.
Lal (2004a), p. 1.
- 8.
Bartz (2015), p. 6.
- 9.
Lal (2004b), p. 3.
- 10.
Dickie et al. (2014), p. 4.
- 11.
As soil can experience unexpected events that release or remove the carbon, for example floods, fires, droughts.
- 12.
FAO (2008), p. 2.
- 13.
IPCC (2014), p. 27.
- 14.
FAO (2015), p. 4.
- 15.
Bodansky (2001), pp. 23, 26.
- 16.
Brenton (2013), pp. 541–546.
- 17.
Brenton (2013), p. 544.
- 18.
Copenhagen Accord, FCCC/CP/2009/L.7, 18 December 2009.
- 19.
KP (1997), Art. 2 (1)(a)(ii) and (iii).
- 20.
KP (1997), Art. 3.3.
- 21.
KP (1997), Art. 3.4.
- 22.
KP (1997), Art. 3.7.
- 23.
The main beneficiary of this clause was Australia, as it allowed to include the net emissions from LULUCF in 1990 to include deforestation emissions in the base year emissions, thereby inflating Australia’s base year emissions, effectively converting Australia’s 108 % target into the equivalent of a 142 % increase on 1990 levels using the standard accounting rules. Source: Macintosh (n.d.), p. 2.
- 24.
Decision 1/CP.17, para 1 (b)(iv).
- 25.
FAO (2010), p. 3.
- 26.
UNFCCC 1/CP.16. para 90.
- 27.
Gambia (2012), p. 15.
- 28.
EU (2012), pp. 11, 12.
- 29.
PA (2015) Art. 7.1.
- 30.
PA (2015) Art. 7.
- 31.
“The extent to which developing country Parties will effectively implement their commitments under the Convention will depend on the effective implementation by developed Country Parties of their commitment under the Convention relating to financial resources and transfer of technology.” The UN Convention on Biological Diversity contains a similar provision in Article 20 (4). 31. I.L.M. 818.
- 32.
FAO (2013), p. 2.
- 33.
UNFCCC (2015).
- 34.
Para. 54 Decision 1/CP-21).
- 35.
Hoogzaad et al. (2014), p. 2.
- 36.
FAO (2012), p. 11.
- 37.
ODI (2015), p. 1.
- 38.
Decision 11/CP.4, para 2 (b); Updated UNFCCC reporting guidelines on annual inventories following incorporation of the provisions of decision 14/CP.11, UN Doc FCCC/SBSTA/2006/9; Decision 1/CP.16, para 40 (a).
- 39.
Decisions 2/CP.1 and 6/CP.3.
- 40.
Decision 10/CP.2 and Decision 17/CP.8.
- 41.
Prag et al. (2013), p. 19.
- 42.
IPCC (2003), p. 4.
- 43.
UNFCCC (2012).
- 44.
UNFCCC (2015), p. 4.
- 45.
PA (2015), Art. 4.13.
- 46.
The multiple roles of soils often go unnoticed. Soils don’t have a voice, and few people speak out for them. They are our silent ally in food production. Mr. José Graziano da Silva, FAO Director-General at the occasion of the launch of the International Year of Soils.
- 47.
United Nations (2015).
- 48.
- 49.
ibid.
- 50.
UNFCCC (n.d.), p. 93.
- 51.
Hodas (2012), p. 14.
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Streck, C., Gay, A. (2017). The Role of Soils in International Climate Change Policy. In: Ginzky, H., Heuser, I., Qin, T., Ruppel, O., Wegerdt, P. (eds) International Yearbook of Soil Law and Policy 2016. International Yearbook of Soil Law and Policy, vol 2016. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42508-5_10
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