Global soil organic carbon sequestration potential under sustainable food systems and climate mitigation

21457 6 113428 2 342417 document 113428 Kamasela_2025_Environ._Res._Lett._20_124062.pdf application/pdf 275dce05b56330ccfad1952fe0440d17 MD5 1300256 2026-04-08 07:38:34 https://pure.iiasa.ac.at/id/eprint/21457/1/Kamasela_2025_Environ._Res._Lett._20_124062.pdf 21457 1 1 application/pdf text en public cc_by_4

Kamasela_2025_Environ._Res._Lett._20_124062.pdf

published 113439 1 342437 document 113439 indexcodes.txt text/x-c 4c597da8f33bf877d0ac26e965329a20 MD5 13298 2026-04-08 07:48:28 https://pure.iiasa.ac.at/id/eprint/21457/2/indexcodes.txt 21457 2 2 text/x-c other Generate index codes conversion from text to indexcodes en public

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http://eprints.org/relation/isVersionOf https://pure.iiasa.ac.at/id/document/113428 http://eprints.org/relation/isVolatileVersionOf https://pure.iiasa.ac.at/id/document/113428 http://eprints.org/relation/issmallThumbnailVersionOf https://pure.iiasa.ac.at/id/document/113428 archive 353 disk0/00/02/14/57 2026-04-08 07:40:10 2026-04-08 07:40:10 2026-04-08 07:40:10 article show Kamasela D.F. Fujimori S. 8258 0000-0001-7897-1796 Hasegawa T. Vishwanathan S.S. Global soil organic carbon sequestration potential under sustainable food systems and climate mitigation pub ECE S3 TISS Soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration is a key nature-based solution to mitigate climate change. Previous studies have highlighted its potential and the role of improve management practice, but many relied on static land-use assumptions or limited spatial data, overlooking socio-economic and climate-driven changes that affect land availability. This study assessed the global SOC sequestration potential of cropland and bioenergy land under three land-use pathways: business as-usual (BAU), a sustainable food system (FOOD), and a 2 °C climate target (2°). Our results show that both climate and food policies may influence SOC sequestration through land-use changes. Under the 2 °C scenario, large-scale expansion of bioenergy crops could increase SOC stocks by about 7% (∼9 Gt CO2). In contrast, the FOOD scenario achieves only modest SOC gains, slightly lower than BAU (−1.59 Gt CO₂). This because dietary shifts reduce pasture demand but do not significantly change cropland area, and bioenergy deployment is limited. While plant-based diets improve food system efficiency and reduce emissions, their SOC benefits are indirect and depend on how freed-up land is used for mitigation, such as afforestation or bioenergy production. Regions with significant bioenergy expansion—such as Latin America, reforming economies, and OECD/EU countries—show the highest SOC gains. Regions with large cropland areas, including the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, contribute 70% of the global potential. Moreover substantial SOC potential can be realized at a cost below $100 per ton of CO₂, highlighting SOC sequestration as a feasible and economically viable climate mitigation strategy. Our study findings underscore the trade-offs between food system transformation, land-use efficiency, and carbon storage, and emphasize that climate policies promoting bioenergy expansion can achieve substantial SOC gains, while dietary policies alone have limited impact if without strategic land management. 2025-12-01 published Institute of Physics Publishing (IOP) doi:10.1088/1748-9326/ae2637 2881 public Environmental Research Letters 20 12 e124062 1 TRUE 1748-9326 info:eu-repo/semantics/article