Unpacking the growth of global agricultural greenhouse gas emissions.
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 41544167.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1126/sciadv.aeb8653 and PMC identifier 12810634.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Agriculture, forestry, and other land use contribute about a fifth of total anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Mitigation efforts have emphasized "decoupling" that sustains production while lowering emissions per unit of output. However, the underlying decoupling mechanisms have not been fully characterized. We rely on a mathematical identity to decompose agricultural GHG emission growth ([Formula: see text]) into three parts: output ([Formula: see text]), emissions per unit of input ([Formula: see text]), and output per unit of input ([Formula: see text]) or total factor productivity (TFP). We then rely on official country-level data to quantify the historical contribution of these components. Over 1961 to 2021, we find that TFP growth-which captures the sector's ability to produce more output per unit of measured input-has consistently remained one of the main sources of GHG emission reduction within farms. Further decomposition reveals a key role for rising land productivity in reducing emission intensity.