This article was originally published by Corporate Knights and is republished with permission.

Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, nations pledged to keep the average global temperature rise to below 2C above pre-industrial levels and to take efforts to narrow that increase to 1.5 C. To meet those goals we must not only stop the increase in our greenhouse gas emissions, we must also draw large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere.

The simplest, most cost effective and environmentally beneficial way to do this is right under our feet. We can farm carbon by storing it in our agricultural soils.

Soils are traditionally rich in carbon. They can contain as much as five per cent carbon by weight, in the form of soil organic matter – plant and animal matter in various stages of decomposition.

But with the introduction of modern agricultural techniques, including the plow, soil organic matter content has dropped by half in many areas of the world, including parts of Canada. That carbon, once stored in the ground, is now found in the atmosphere and oceans as CO2 and is contributing to global warming.

The organic compounds found in soil are the glue that hold soil particles together and help give the soil structure. Like the walls of a building, this structure creates openings and passageways that allow the soil to conduct and store water, contain air, resist soil erosion and provide a habitat for soil organisms.

Plowing breaks apart soil aggregates and allows microorganisms to eat the soil organic compounds. In the short-term, the increased microbial activity releases nutrients, boosting crop productivity. In the long-term the loss of structure reduces the soil’s ability to hold water and resist erosion. Ultimately, crop productivity drops.

How can we make soil organic matter?

First and foremost, we need to disturb soil less. The advent of no-till and reduced tillage methods have allowed us to increase the carbon content of soils.

No-till and direct-seeding methods place the seed directly into the soil, minimizing the disturbance associated with seedbed preparation. The lack of disturbance allows the roots and crop residues from the previous crops to form soil organic matter. It reduces the degradation of the soil organic matter already present in the soil.

In Canada, we are already benefiting from reduced tillage. In the Prairies, no-tillage agriculture has increased from less than five per cent of the land area in the early 1990s to almost 50 per cent in 2006.

The situation is a bit more complex in Eastern Canada. The region’s soil type and climate make it less easy to build soil organic matter. At Dalhousie’s Atlantic Soil Health Lab, we are exploring the potential of various cropping practices to increase soil organic matter content in the soils of Atlantic Canada. While the potential to store carbon may not be as great as in Western Canada, the benefits of increased soil organic matter content are far greater because of the critically low levels of organic matter.

Secondly, we can use more diverse crop rotations. Forage crops – such as grasses, clovers and alfalfa – penetrate the soil with extensive root systems that lead to the formation of soil organic matter. Short rotations dominated by crops that have poor root systems (corn, soybeans) are not effective in building soil organic matter.

Farmers can also build soil organic matter by adding organic amendments such as animal manure, composts, forestry residues (wood chips) or biosolids to the soil.

Using the right amount of fertilizer is also important. Fertilizers can improve plant growth, lead to larger roots and add more plant matter to the soil in the unharvested portion of the crop. However, too much nitrogen fertilizer can result in the production of the powerful greenhouse gas nitrous oxide and offset the benefit of increased soil organic matter formation.

Farmers need economic incentives

Project Drawdown, a non-profit organization that researches solutions to global warming, has estimated that global farmland restoration (building soil organic matter) could remove 14 gigatones (billion tonnes) of CO2.

This would reduce the CO2 in the atmosphere below the current 400 parts per million – a level unpassed for several million years – while developing more fertile, resilient soils to feed people for years to come and keep forests intact.

These approaches seem like obvious solutions. Why are they not more widely adopted? The short answer is economics.

The benefits of drawing down CO2 and building soil organic matter play out over decades. But the costs associated with these practices often do not have increased returns in the short-term.

Farmers often make decisions in response to short-term economic pressures and government policies. Improved soil management is a public good. We need economic tools and short-term incentives that encourage producers to adopt these practices for the good of all.

This article was originally published by Asian Development Blog and is republished with permission.

Last week, representatives of the world’s multilateral development institutions and member institutions of the International Development Finance Club reconvened in Paris for the One Planet Summit to reaffirm their commitment to the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change.

With development finance institutions increasingly focused on supporting the international climate agenda, it is a good time to reflect on the COP 23 climate conference in Bonn that I attended last month, and to analyze how ADB is contributing to some of the areas highlighted during the event.

ADB provided financial and advisory support for Fiji’s successful presidency of COP 23—a significant achievement for the country and one which has helped to raise awareness about climate threats faced by Pacific island nations.

The crucial issue of finance was hotly debated in Bonn, with developing countries insisting on more clarity and ambition from developed countries on financing commitments. But aside from modest replenishments of the Adaptation Fund—which targets mainly small-scale projects—and the Least Developed Countries Fund, governments made few new pledges.

The Green Climate Fund (GCF) was urged to make its financing instruments available to all countries, ensure timely disbursement of approved funding, and to launch its first replenishment process in 2018.

ADB’s deepening engagement on climate

ADB is broadening its engagement with the GCF. The institutions signed an Accreditation Master Agreement in August 2017. ADB is developing a robust pipeline of project proposals for submission in 2018, and has thus far secured nearly $75 million in GCF financing for ADB projects in its Pacific developing member countries.

ADB to double climate financing for Pacific to $500 million until 2020

With GCF financing, ADB will help to make a water supply system for Fiji’s capital Suva more climate-resilient, support seven Pacific countries to accelerate implementation of renewable energy and help ensure year-round connectivity for Nauru through the construction of climate-resilient port infrastructure.

Moreover, in line with its 2015 commitment to deliver $6 billion in climate finance annually by 2020 from its own resources, ADB will also double climate finance to its Pacific developing member countries to $500 million between 2017 and 2020.  

In Bonn, some headway was made on the rules and procedures underpinning the Paris Agreement, commonly called the “Paris Rulebook”, particularly regarding Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), transparency, and carbon markets.

Regarding NDCs, which outline intended climate actions by countries and will be periodically reviewed and strengthened, discussions centered on the establishment of clear rules for NDC structuring, implementing, and updating.

I was happy to announce that ADB has joined the NDC Partnership, a grouping of around 65 countries and the European Union—among them 27 ADB members—and development organizations committed to supporting the implementation of ambitious NDCs.

Talanoa Dialogue supports achieving climate ambitions through collective action

ADB is working to launch a dedicated NDC support platform in 2018. This platform, for which $3 million in initial funding has been secured from ADB’s Climate Change Fund, is intended to support selected developing member countries in turning their NDCs into bankable climate investment plans.

Collective action to hit climate targets

Progress was made in Bonn on the sensitive issues of increasing transparency of financial flows and monitoring compliance of climate actions. The Talanoa Dialogue, a consultative dialogue set to continue throughout 2018, aims to support an open and constructive exchange on how climate ambitions can be enhanced through collective action.

For its part, in addition to reporting its overall annual climate investment and greenhouse gas footprint, ADB has begun to publicly disclose information on every project that involves climate mitigation or adaptation finance, a first among multilateral development banks.

Through its Climate Change Operational Framework 2017-2030, ADB has also committed to measuring and reducing its portfolio-level greenhouse gas emissions in line with efforts to limit global warming to 2°C.

ADB also requires that the social cost of carbon be considered in the economic analysis of projects. This valuation should apply to the difference in emissions between the with and without project scenarios. Based on a meta-analysis conducted for the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report, a 2016 value of $36 per ton of CO2-equivalent emissions (rising 2% in real terms annually) is applied to reflect the marginal damage cost of emissions.

Though no text was adopted, there were some positive developments regarding the market mechanisms envisaged under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. ADB has supported carbon pricing through its continued engagement with existing and emerging carbon markets by facilitating carbon finance through trust funds and capacity-building support for market-based opportunities in emissions reduction.

ADB to spur investments in climate-friendly technologies to achieve NDCs

These efforts will continue. ADB is committed to helping its developing member countries to use market mechanisms to incentivize investments in climate-friendly technologies for achieving their respective NDCs. At COP 23, ADB presented an assessment of its Future Carbon Fund projects, demonstrating strong linkages between investments in climate change mitigation projects and the delivery of sustainable development co-benefits.

Conversely, little progress was made on the issue of loss and damage, which seeks to address the disproportionate impact of climate change on countries that have made little historical contribution to the problem.

Helping the most vulnerable

Some of these impacts are becoming evident. ADB presented at COP 23 its flagship report A Region At Risk: The Human Dimensions of Climate Change in Asia and the Pacific, which outlines how climate change is already impacting human development in the region and underscores the importance of taking decisive climate action to help the most vulnerable.

To help countries cope, a major new initiative, the InsuResilience Global Partnership for Climate and Disaster Risk Finance and Insurance Solutions, was launched by the G20 countries in partnership with the so-called “Vulnerable 20”. The latter is a group of 43 climate vulnerable countries-18 of which are ADB developing member countries- which aims to help an additional 400 million poor and vulnerable people gain access to climate risk and insurance solutions.

ADB is supporting the aims of the partnership through the Asia-Pacific Climate Finance Fund (ACliFF), a new trust fund to increase developing countries’ access to financial products to address both climate investment risk and climate risk. Germany has committed an initial €28 million to ACliFF, which will initiate operations in 2018.

Going forward, development finance institutions will be expected to deliver more climate finance and related support to countries, and to make all their activities compatible with efforts to address climate change. ADB has an opportunity to play an even more significant role in helping our developing member countries fulfill their climate pledges.

This article was originally published by The Climate Group and is republished with permission.

NEW DELHI: The Climate Group and Clean Energy Access Network will host the third India Energy Access Summit from February 12-13, 2018, catalyzing leaders and innovators from India and beyond to accelerate clean power for all.

The Summit, now in its third year, will bring together policymakers, investors and businesses in the decentralized renewable energy (DRE) space to identify opportunities, challenges and successes in India’s fast-changing energy landscape.

Through high-level panel discussion, TED-style talks and thematic workshops, attendees will explore how scaling up decentralized renewable energy will simultaneously accelerate India’s energy transition as well as support the country’s commitments to deliver India’s Nationally Determined Contributions on climate and UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Panel discussions will be split across two days and will range from sessions about India’s leadership on 100% electrification by 2022, the role of the private sector, and big data analytics for energy access, to enabling India’s mainstream financing for scaling up DRE. A draft agenda is available on the event page.

In India, it is estimated that more than 230 million people do not have access to electricity, so rely on dangerous, fossil-fuel based energy sources such as kerosene lamps. Without access to modern electricity, income generation and other socio-economic benefits are limited.

While the government aims to provide electricity to all households by 2022, DRE plays a vital role in meeting the reliable, affordable power requirements of these under-served communities more urgently.

Jarnail Singh, India Director, The Climate Group, says: "The third India Energy Access Summit will explore the new role of decentralized renewable energy as well as the business community in accelerating clean power for all – the mission that underpins India’s superlative performance towards achieving its SDGs.

“The 2018 Summit will also capitalize on the unprecedented political will that is currently being exhibited by the Government of India to electrify all households by 2022. We look forward to leaders and innovators from India and beyond joining us to drive universal energy access."