This newspaper has an exclusive interview with Zhang Jibing of Nanjing Institute: How to promote the transformation of agriculture from carbon source to carbon sink?
In March this year, Gaochun District, Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province, completed the "first auction" of the national biochar organic rice to produce carbon sinks, what is the significance of this auction? How can China help carbon peak and carbon neutrality by tapping agricultural carbon sinks? This reporter interviewed Zhang Jibing, director of the Rural Environment and Organic Food Research Center of the Nanjing Institute of Environmental Sciences of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.
Zhang Jibing, director and researcher of the Rural Environment and Organic Food Research Center of the Nanjing Institute of Environmental Sciences, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, is mainly engaged in the measurement of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions, the research on the roadmap of county-level carbon neutral agriculture, and presided over the formulation of zero-carbon agricultural product certification, tea carbon footprint certification and low-carbon village certification system.
China Environment News: In March this year, a numbered 0000001 carbon ticket was signed out in Gaochun District, Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province, which was the "first shot" of carbon sinks produced by biochar organic rice in China. What is the significance of this auction?
Zhang Jibing:The "first shot" of the national biochar organic rice to produce carbon sinks is the practice of actively exploring agricultural carbon sink market transactions in Jiangsu under the goal of "double carbon". There are three main significances.
First, it has explored the implementation path to promote the realization of the value of ecological products. Giving full play to the function of agricultural carbon sink is to promote the realization of the value of agricultural carbon sink, expand the value of ecological products, and explore the path to realize the transformation of "lucid waters and lush mountains" into "golden mountains and silver mountains". With the deepening of the whole society's understanding of ecological value, the exploration of the realization of agricultural carbon sink value will continue to develop, and different types of agricultural carbon coupons will be more abundant.
Second, it provides a reference model for giving full play to the market mechanism to expand the ecological value of organic products. The essence of the transaction in the agricultural carbon sequestration market is a contract transaction, and the two parties realize carbon sequestration trading through the platform, and the transaction can promote the control and reduction of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions. By selling agricultural carbon sinks, suppliers can offset their inputs in maintaining and strengthening the soil ecology of organic paddy fields, and promote the superposition of ecological and low-carbon functional values of organic products. Demanders have the ownership of carbon sink products and the obligation to pay costs by paying fees to purchase agricultural carbon sinks, which is conducive to encouraging enterprises to participate in voluntary greenhouse gas emission reduction actions and helping to achieve the "double carbon" goal.
The third is to accumulate experience for agricultural carbon sinks to enter the carbon market. Before the Ministry of Ecology and Environment announced the methodology for voluntary emission reduction of agricultural greenhouse gases, through the pilot of agricultural carbon sink trading, we can explore and summarize the formation of agricultural carbon sink technical standard system, measurement and monitoring system and comprehensive service system, guide the cultivation of regional agricultural carbon sink trading market, and accumulate experience for the future integration of agricultural carbon sink into the national carbon trading market.
China Environment News: China is a big agricultural country, what is the importance of agriculture to the realization of China's "double carbon" goal?
Zhang Jibing:China is one of the largest agricultural countries in the world, producing 30% of the world's rice, 18% of wheat and 21% of corn, which consumes a lot of agricultural inputs and also brings large greenhouse gas emissions. Agricultural activities are the third largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in China, with total greenhouse gas emissions of 793 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2018, accounting for 6.1% of the country's total greenhouse gas emissions, second only to energy activities and industrial production processes. At the same time, agriculture is also an important source of non-carbon dioxide greenhouse gases in China, accounting for 37.2% of the country's total methane emissions and 49.2% of the country's total nitrous oxide emissions. A large number of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and agricultural films are used in the process of crop planting, and these agricultural production materials will also emit greenhouse gases in the production process, and if these "hidden" emissions are also included, the proportion of greenhouse gas emissions caused by agricultural production will reach more than 18% of the total greenhouse gas emissions in the country.
But unlike energy activities and industrial processes, agriculture is both a source and a sink of carbon. With the development of green and low-carbon agriculture in China, according to the long-term monitoring data of the Farming and Protection Center of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, it is found that the soil carbon sequestration rate in China in 1988-2018, 1998-2018, and 2004-2018 showed a gradient increase, which was 279, 309, and 323 kgC/ha/yr, respectively. Promoting agricultural emission reduction and carbon sequestration, reducing the intensity of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions, and improving the carbon sequestration capacity of farmland soil are conducive to improving the ability of China's agricultural production to adapt to climate change and making positive contributions to the global response to climate change, which is an important starting point for the realization of China's "double carbon" goal.
China Environment News: What is the potential of China's agricultural carbon sink?
Zhang Jibing:In the composition of China's agricultural greenhouse gas emissions, the greenhouse gas emissions of planting industry are higher than those of aquaculture. In 2018, the total greenhouse gas emissions of China's planting industry were 425 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, including 196 million tons from rice planting, 223 million tons from agricultural land, and 0.06 billion tons from straw field incineration. The total greenhouse gas emissions from aquaculture are 368 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, of which 228 million tons are emitted from animal intestines and 140 million tons are emitted from animal manure management. Effective emission reduction measures such as water management and straw carbonization can reduce greenhouse gas emissions in China's planting industry by 6.4%-30.4%.
To promote carbon neutrality in agriculture, the carbon sequestration potential of farmland soil deserves more attention.
Soil carbon pools are the largest carbon pools in terrestrial ecosystems, and their fluctuations directly affect greenhouse gas emission reduction strategies. The 2015 Paris climate conference put forward the "four thousandths" initiative, that is, the use of agricultural carbon sinks to absorb carbon emissions and agricultural carbon sequestration of a virtuous cycle of a new economic development model to cope with climate change, to ensure food security, starting from the soil, the combination of planting and breeding, agricultural soil organic carbon storage increased by 4‰ per year, can reverse the trend of climate change within 20 years.
According to the results of the second soil census in China, the carbon pool of farmland soil (0-1 m) in China is 85-95Pg (850-95 billion tons of carbon), and small changes in soil carbon pool may also have a strong impact on atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration. According to the 2019 National Cultivated Land Quality Grade Bulletin, the current cultivated land area of farmland in China is 2.023 billion mu, the cultivated land area with soil organic matter content above 20g/kg is 982 million mu, and the soil organic matter content of 10.41 mu of cultivated land is below 20g/kg, and the soil organic matter content can reach up to 28.9g/kg under the condition of good farmland management measures, indicating that China's soil still has huge soil carbon sequestration potential. At present, the carbon sequestration efficiency of farmland soil in China is 290kgC/ha/yr, and the average annual carbon sequestration can reach 34.4 million tons of carbon, which is equivalent to offsetting 126.13 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions.
China Environment News: What work has China done to promote the improvement of agricultural carbon sinks?
Zhang Jibing:As early as 2015, China issued a policy of deepening rural reform, developing modern agriculture and promoting farmers' income, put forward the strategy of agricultural transformation and development, and actively promoted the reduction of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions.
In August 2021, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and other five departments recently jointly issued the "14th Five-Year Plan" National Agricultural Green Development Plan (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan"), which is China's first special plan for agricultural green development, focusing on the key areas and weak links of green development, and proposing key tasks such as strengthening the protection and utilization of agricultural resources, strengthening the prevention and control of agricultural non-point source pollution, strengthening the protection and restoration of agricultural ecology, and building a green and low-carbon agricultural industrial chain.
In September 2021, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the "Opinions on Completely, Accurately and Comprehensively Implementing the New Development Concept and Doing a Good Job in Carbon Peak and Carbon Neutrality", which aims to accelerate the green development of agriculture, promote agricultural carbon sequestration and efficiency, and improve the carbon sink of ecological agriculture.
In June 2022, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and the National Development and Reform Commission jointly issued the "Implementation Plan for Carbon Reduction and Sequestration in Agriculture and Rural Areas", which clearly pointed out the implementation plan for the development of China's agricultural emission reduction and carbon reduction, and provided policy guidance and guidelines for China's agriculture to achieve the dual carbon goal.
In August 2023, the National Standards Committee, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Construction of a Standard System for the Resource Utilization of Livestock and Poultry Manure", proposing to accelerate the formulation of technical specifications for livestock and poultry breeding, and pay close attention to the preparation of accounting and auditing standards in terms of carbon footprint accounting and reporting guidelines, so as to provide institutional guarantee for agricultural carbon accounting from the perspective of the certification system.
Of course, we also see that China's agricultural carbon sequestration and carbon reduction is still in its infancy, and the path needs to be further clarified, and these plans and deployments need to be further implemented.
China Environment News: Promoting agricultural carbon sequestration trading is an important measure to help agricultural carbon sequestration and carbon reduction. What are the difficulties in promoting agricultural carbon sink trading?
Zhang Jibing:At present, the ecological protection compensation mechanism for agricultural carbon sink value has not yet been established. China implements a carbon emission trading system in the fields of industry, energy and afforestation, and the current connection between carbon trading and agriculture is insufficient. An ecological compensation mechanism for the value of agricultural carbon sequestration has not yet been established. Governments at all levels lack guidance and incentives for conservation tillage, organic planting and other measures that are conducive to farmland emission reduction and sink increase, which restricts the development and trading of farmland emission reduction and sink increase projects.
Agricultural carbon sequestration accounting methodologies have also not been incorporated into approved methodologies. In January 2024, China restarted the voluntary greenhouse gas emission reduction carbon trading market, because agricultural carbon emissions are affected by multiple factors such as region, climate, soil, planting and breeding methods, and it is difficult to develop methodologies, and the temporary agricultural carbon sink accounting methodology is not in the first batch of four greenhouse gas voluntary emission reduction project methodologies, which restricts the development of agricultural carbon sink trading to a certain extent.
There is a lack of publicity on the realization of the value of agricultural carbon sinks. Agricultural carbon sinks play an indispensable role in helping China achieve the "dual carbon" goal. However, due to the wide range and strong professionalism of agricultural carbon sinks, the public generally has insufficient publicity, public awareness and participation in agricultural carbon sinks, and there are a large number of phenomena that are interested in agricultural carbon sinks but do not know how to participate in the carbon sink market, which restricts the development and utilization of agricultural carbon sinks.
China Environment News: What are your suggestions for developing agricultural carbon sequestration trading?
Zhang Jibing:The first is to give full play to the leading role of planning in the process of marketization of agricultural carbon sinks. Incorporate agricultural carbon sink trading into national and local development plans, give full play to the different roles of the central, local and enterprise in the agricultural carbon sink trading market, and continuously improve the declaration, operation, certification and other procedures for agricultural carbon sink projects.
The second is to strengthen the guiding role of the government in the process of marketization of agricultural carbon sinks. By strengthening policy support in the form of financial support, subsidy reductions and exemptions, we will gradually establish a carbon sink trading system with agricultural characteristics, promote the inclusion of agricultural carbon sink trading projects in a standardized management mechanism, promote the flow of capital in the market, expand the market scale of agricultural carbon sink trading, and encourage more market players to join the agricultural carbon sink trading market.
The third is to increase support for agricultural emission reduction and sink increase methodology. Establish a mechanism for unveiling the leader, increase financial support, guide and encourage universities and research institutions, enterprises and institutions, industry associations, etc. to independently develop and compile agricultural carbon sink project methodologies, and give priority to the establishment of methodologies for projects with obvious emission reduction effects, high social expectations, small technical disputes, reliable data quality, and social and ecological benefits.
Fourth, innovate agricultural carbon sink products and explore the market-oriented path of agricultural carbon sink. At present, there are not many varieties of agricultural carbon sink products that can be traded in China, and we should continue to explore new carbon sink financial products such as carbon sink savings, carbon sink futures, carbon sink insurance, and carbon sink credit loans on the basis of promoting carbon tickets and carbon labels for agricultural products. Expand the scope of agricultural carbon sink trading and agricultural carbon sink market-oriented products.
Fifth, strengthen the basic research and application of agricultural carbon sink trading. For the major scientific and technological issues restricting the realization of the marketization of agricultural carbon sink trading, encourage and promote relevant institutions to strengthen cooperation and exchanges with relevant international organizations, countries and institutions, cooperate together, jointly tackle key problems, and actively explore technologies and methods on the construction and trading of agricultural carbon sink markets.
