Daily on Energy: UN calls for upending entrenched land-use and dietary habits

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned Thursday that about 23% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions result from agriculture, forestry, and other land use practices. Also, warming has already affected food and water supplies.

“The stability of food supply is projected to decrease as the magnitude and frequency of extreme weather events that disrupt food chains increases,” said the report, which was produced by 107 experts from 52 countries.

The report also found higher emissions can lower the nutritional quality of crops. In addition, a significant amount of agricultural emissions come from cattle, which produce methane when they belch.

The report recommends people eat less meat in favor of more “balanced” diets featuring plant-based foods, such as grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds.

“The report should give people a little bit of hope that some things as small as individual choices can make a difference,” Brendan Guy, manager of international policy at the Natural Resources Defense Council, told me.

The report said about 25% to 30% of all food produced in the world is lost or wasted, which leads to greater emissions.

“A lot of food doesn’t make it from farm to the plate,” Lynn Scarlett, vice president for policy and government relations at the Nature Conservancy, told me. “Waste is a problem of food security and to the degree we have a large amount of food waste means we need to produce more food on more land to get to people’s plates.”

Part of a larger trend: The findings build on a larger report released by the same U.N. climate panel last year that concluded world energy use must undergo a “rapid and far-reaching” transition by 2030 to prevent a 1.5-degree rise in the global temperature, the threshold required to avoid the worst consequences of global warming.

However, the contribution of agricultural activity to climate change has been traditionally overlooked, compared to the larger emitting electricity and transportation sectors.

“This report is significant because it shines a light on the land sector,” Scarlett said. “Lands matter big time in terms of climate impacts and it is those impacts that can affect the well being of people, access to water, and availability of food.”

Land and farming reforms: However, there are ready policies to better manage lands, Scarlett and Guy told me, such as encouraging greater use of emissions-cutting techniques like soil carbon sequestration, in which carbon is removed from the atmosphere and stored in soil.

Soil is naturally able to absorb emissions, making it a “carbon sink,” but prevalent agricultural practices have reduced soil health. (Presidential candidates such as Elizabeth Warren have platform planks geared toward the problem — see below).

According to the U.N report, soil is being lost at 10 to 100 times the rate than it is forming.

The report suggests planting cover crops to counter soil erosion, reducing fertilizer runoff, crop diversification, and using no-till farming, a way of growing crops without disturbing soil.

In addition, investing in forest restoration, or planting new trees, in order to reverse the trend of tropical deforestation — the removal of trees for farming, ranching or urban use — could help reduce carbon emissions.

And these reforms would pack a big impact: Land and forest management techniques such as these can generate about a third of the emissions reductions needed to reach net-zero by 2050, Scarlett and Guy said.

“Sometimes, when we address environmental problems, there are very stark tradeoffs,” Scarlett said. “In this case, we know that sustainable agricultural practices actually can benefit people’s livelihoods, can actually improve agricultural yields, while getting the climate benefits. It really is just a matter of old habits die hard and how do we pivot.”

Policy still matters: However, the U.N. report warns that governments must act, quickly. Some presidential candidates have proposed policies to prevent the land management problem from getting worse, with Joe Biden and Michael Bennet both pledging to conserve 30% of America’s lands and water by 2030.

“The great thing about all of these solutions is they are among the most efficient in building resilience to climate change, and there are no technical restraints,” Guy said. “The only barrier we see is the lack of political leadership.”

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ELIZABETH WARREN PLEDGES TO PAY FARMERS TO FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE: Warren released a plan Wednesday to build a “new farm economy” in rural America with a heavy focus on giving tools to farmers to fight climate change.

“Climate change — from more severe floods to extreme heat — is changing the rural way of life. Our failure to invest in rural areas is holding back millions of families, weakening our economy, and undermining our efforts to combat climate change,” Warren said in a two-part plan posted to Medium.

Warren is the latest presidential candidate to prioritize combating emissions from agriculture as part of her goal to reach net-zero emissions across the economy.

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairwoman Cheri Bustos of Illinois released a “Rural Green Partnership” policy framework Tuesday that seeks to close the economic gap between rural and urban communities by encouraging farmers to participate in the clean energy transition.

What’s in Warren’s plan: It is headlined by a provision to “pay farmers to fight climate change” by expanding the Conservation Stewardship Program, which provides financial assistance to farmers who implement conservation techniques, such as soil carbon sequestration.

She would increase funding for the program from $1 billion to $15 billion annually, while expanding the practices eligible for compensation “so that every farmer who wants to use their land to fight climate change can do so.”

Warren also highlights her previously announced commitment to spend $400 billion on clean energy research and development, some of which would support boosting technologies to decarbonize the agriculture sector. She would create a “farmer-led Innovation Fund” that farmers can apply to use towards new methods of sustainable farming, like agroforestry.

Warren also vows to crack down on agriculture companies for polluting rivers and streams, promising to more strictly enforce the Clean Air and Water Acts against large livestock operations that produce animal waste and other pollutants.

BOOKER INTRODUCES CLIMATE BILL TO PLANT BILLIONS OF TREES TO ABSORB CARBON: Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, a presidential candidate, introduced a bill Thursday that would provide billions of dollars per year to encourage voluntary farm and ranch conservation practices, “massive reforestation,” and wetlands restoration.

His “Climate Stewardship Act” sets the goal of planting 15 billion trees by 2050 to counteract deforestation and restore 2 million acres of coastal wetlands by 2030 to sequester carbon and reduce flooding. Booker says planting so many trees would sequester more than 13 billion metric tons of carbon — equivalent to more than two years of current U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.

Booker’s legislation also would establish a Civilian Conservation Corps, modeled after President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, within the Agriculture Department geared toward putting poor and minority people to work restoring forests and wetlands.

Promoting sustainable farming: He would provide “tens of billions of dollars” of funding for voluntary Agriculture Department lands conservation programs, with new funding dedicated to encouraging climate-friendly farming practices such as rotational grazing, improved fertilizer efficiency, and planting millions of new acres of cover crops. And his bill also doubles funding for agricultural research programs, while offering grants to farmers, ranchers, and rural business owners to inspire them to pursue renewable energy production on their land.

“This legislation will not only reduce emissions and substantially increase carbon sequestration, but will also create hundreds of thousands of new jobs, enhance biodiversity by restoring tens of millions of acres of habitat, and make our farms more resilient and competitive,” Booker said in a statement.

A taste of Booker’s climate approach: Booker, who has endorsed the Green New Deal, has not introduced a comprehensive climate change plan as part of his presidential campaign, although he supported advanced nuclear power in the Senate.

CENTRIST HOUSE DEMOCRATS RELEASE INNOVATION-FOCUSED CLIMATE AGENDA: The New Democrat Coalition, a centrist group of more than 100 House Democrats, released a list of policy proposals to combat climate change Wednesday, with the goal of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050.

The platform contains broad principles and baseline actions uncontroversial among Democrats, such as recommitting the U.S. to the Paris climate change accord.

It endorses carbon pricing as central to decarbonizing the country across all sectors, including manufacturing and agriculture.

It also promotes bipartisan ideas, including investing in R&D for “innovative” clean energy technologies to export abroad; eliminating restrictive regulatory “barriers” hampering renewable energy development; and emphasizing a “technology-inclusive approach” that supports capture capture and nuclear energy.

It supports reinvesting in fossil fuel-dependent communities during the clean energy transition and confronting “the legacy of pollution” disproportionately impacting people of color and low-income communities.

The coalition also recommends pursuing an “actionable adaptation policy” that includes increased spending on pre-disaster mitigation projects to reduce the impact of flooding and droughts.

DEMOCRATIC STATES SUE EPA FOR NOT BANNING PESTICIDE CHLORPYRIFOS: A coalition of Democratic attorneys general sued the Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday for not banning a widely used pesticide, chlorpyrifos, linked to health problems in children.

The EPA says chlorpyrifos is an important chemical used by farmers on more than 80 food crops. EPA has questioned the significance of data linking chlorpyrifos to neurological damage in children. The Obama administration had proposed banning all uses of chlorpyrifos, but former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt withdrew the rule. It is already banned for household use.

EPA has said it will continue to review the data on chlorpyrifos through 2022 before issuing a final determination on whether to allow its use on crops.

“Parents shouldn’t have to question whether everyday fruits and vegetables will poison their children,” said Xavier Becerra, attorney general of California, the nation’s largest agriculture state, who led the lawsuit filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. “The EPA is egregiously sacrificing our children’s health by refusing to make a determination on this dangerous pesticide. Today we’ll hold their feet to the fire and force them to do their job.”

Other states on the suit include New York, Washington, Maryland, Vermont, and Massachusetts.

The Rundown

S&P Global US power generators reporting savings, other benefits from phasing out coal

Reuters China continued with Iran oil imports in July in teeth of US sanctions

Wall Street Journal In Gulf tanker crisis, Iran tries to avoid alienating allies

Bloomberg Saudis are discussing options with producers to halt oil’s slide

Calendar

THURSDAY | August 8

12:30 p.m. ET. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee’s Subcommittee on National Parks holds a field hearing in Deer Lodge, Montana, “to examine opportunities to expand visitation at lesser-known National Park System units.”