Achieving Carbon-Negative Agriculture and Carbon Credits Through Green Renewable Energy
摘要
Agriculture accounts for about 10%–12% of the world’s total emissions of greenhouse gas (GHG), mainly due to changes in the use of land, application of fertilizers, and management of livestock. At the same time, it has enormous potential for mitigating climate change through carbon sequestration and emission reductions. Renewable energy systems, including solar-powered irrigation, biogas digesters for managing manure, wind energy to meet on-farm electricity needs, and biomass-energy conversion, have the potential to reduce the agricultural carbon footprint significantly. For example, biogas systems can reduce subsequent methane emissions up to 50%, or solar irrigation can lower diesel consumption and reduce carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions between 20% and 30%. The system supports eliminating the need for fossil fuels, increasing carbon credit generation by quantifying emission reductions, and sequestering carbon. Collectively, they are used by farmers to trade on carbon markets. This chapter outlines how such decentralized renewable energy systems can be implemented in agricultural practice to support the reduction targets set under frameworks such as the Paris Agreement and Kyoto Protocol. It further spelt out the economic and operational challenges in adoption, including high upfront costs, technical capacity gaps, and absent policy incentives in the Global South. The focus is on aligning policy instruments, financial instruments, and capacity-building activities for maximum sustainability and farmer participation in carbon credit markets. This is achieved by linking renewable energies to transform the agricultural sector.