Regenerative agriculture: reviving ancient practices for carbon removal

The 4 per 1000 Initiative – Soils for Food Security and Climate is a global effort launched in 2015 during  COP21 (the Paris Climate Conference) to promote soil health as a key strategy for combating climate change and enhancing food security. The initiative’s name, “4 per 1000,” comes from the concept of increasing the amount of carbon in the world’s soils by just
0.4% per year (or 4 grams per kilogram) could have a significant impact on reducing the rise of atmospheric CO₂.

Goals and Objectives

The main objective of the 4 per 1000 Initiative is to increase the global soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks through sustainable agricultural practices. This increase in soil carbon can potentially offset a significant portion of annual global greenhouse gas emissions, stabilising the climate while improving soil fertility. Key goals include:

• Climate Mitigation: Enhance soil carbon sequestration to absorb CO₂ from the atmosphere, reducing the impact of greenhouse gas emissions.

• Food Security: Improve soil health, which leads to better crop yields, increased food security, and more sustainable agricultural systems.

• Sustainable Land Use: Promote agricultural practices that are regenerative and sustainable, like agroecology, agroforestry, cover cropping, no-till farming, and crop rotation.

How It Works

The 4 per 1000 Initiative encourages countries, farmers, scientists, and stakeholders to adopt agricultural techniques that increase soil carbon content. The idea is that even a small annual increase in soil carbon content (by 0.4%) globally would sequester enough CO₂ to help offset current anthropogenic emissions, particularly from fossil fuels and deforestation.
(The International “4 per 1000” Initiative, 2016)