Full Title: Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks in U.S. Agriculture
Author(s): Genevieve K. Croft
Publisher(s): Congressional Research Service
Publication Date: September 2, 2021
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
Agriculture and land–use activities continue to play a central role in the broader debate about energy and climate policy options in the United States and abroad. Such activities offer opportunities to remove greenhouse gases (GHGs) from the atmosphere, potentially reducing the nation’s net emissions: the metric of emissions targets for the Paris Agreement (PA), the binding international climate change treaty. Pursuant to the PA, the Biden Administration released a Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) in 2021 specifying a new U.S. target of reducing net GHG emissions by 50%–52% below 2005 levels by 2030. Most federal legislative proposals to reduce U.S. GHG emissions would not require reductions in agriculture, but some would incentivize voluntary actions to do so. For example, the Growing Climate Solutions Act (S. 1251/H.R. 2820, 117th) would support the creation and use of agriculture and forestry offset credits in carbon markets by establishing qualifications for technical assistance providers and third–party verifiers and by developing a list of U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)–backed offset protocols.