Researchers determin policies required to promot low carbon fuels that will support ag

In Illinois, a team of agricultural economists, environmental scientists and policy experts envisions a path toward a carbon-neutral agricultural future by expanding the reach of policies designed to promote low-carbon biofuels for transportation and aviation. In a new paper in the journal Science, the researchers propose policies that would reward farmers for adopting “climate-smart” practices when growing biofuel crops and remove the hurdles that currently thwart such efforts.

Studies show that, if adopted globally, “climate-smart” farming practices could reduce carbon emissions by 4-8 billion metric tons per year, the researchers wrote. To put that in perspective, in 2024, global carbon dioxide emissions reached an all-time high of about 40 billion tons.

Biofuel markets have already established mechanisms for accounting for the carbon-intensity of different feedstock types and have well-developed channels for transferring payments from energy markets to biofuel producers, the researchers report. This opens the door to using these channels to expand performance-based incentives to increase the adoption of climate-smart practices in agriculture.

At present, however, the channels for crediting farmers for soil-carbon sequestration or other climate-friendly practices on the farm are segregated from the markets that provide credits for low-carbon biofuels, Khanna said. To be compensated for their sustainability efforts in growing the crops, farmers must either enroll in a conservation program or sell carbon credits to one of several companies specializing in agricultural carbon offsets. Space is limited in government conservation programs, however, and farmers must prove that they aren’t already engaging in climate-smart practices to obtain credits. This requires a lot of extra effort on the farmer’s part.