Networking in Europe on soil carbon sequestration

Increased sequestration of organic carbon in soils is one of the key measures for the agricultural sector to meet the ambitious mitigation goals set up in the Paris Agreements. In Norway, the importance of this topic has been emphasized notably in the report "Agriculture and Climate Change" in 2016 and the need for increased research on soil carbon is emphasized in the 2021-2030 Climate Plan of the Norwegian Government. This development of knowledge and technologies for sequestration of organic carbon in agricultural soils is currently ongoing in Norway, with several key projects on this topic. Climate change mitigation is in essence an international issue, where solutions have to be found in common. This has promoted the development of international networks and initiatives such as the FACCE JPIs Thematic Annual Programming (TAP); the Global Research Alliance for Agricultural Greenhouse gases (GRA), the 4 per 1000 initiative, the European Join Program on Soils (EJP Soil; 2020) and the planed International Research Consortium on agricultural soil carbon sequestration (SOCA-IRC 2021), which all aim at promoting the international cooperation and coordination of national research projects on soil carbon storage and greenhouse gas emissions. The present project gave partial support to the participation of Norwegian representatives to these networks, and in particular to the launch of the EJP Soil project. Within the framework of EJP, NIBIO has contributed in 2020 to a pan-European mapping of research needs on soil C and climate-smart soil management. To answer some of these questions, NIBIO will participate to 5 new EJP research and synthesis projects starting in 2021.

The present small project has contributed to the initial participation to the JPI TAP Soil activities (Brussels Meeting in 2018, initial goal). The JPI TAP Soil network itself stopped to function after 2018 and its activities became integrated in EJP Soil, which started in February 2020. Within the framework of EJP, NIBIO has contributed in 2020 to a pan-European mapping of research needs on soil C and climate-smart soil management. To answer some of these questions, NIBIO will participate to 5 new EJP research and synthesis projects starting in 2021. The present project (NFR270624) has also contributed to assembling the National Hub of the EJP Soil project. The main outcome of the present project is therefore the facilitation on necessary networking activities within EJP Soil. These activities will lead to improved and standardized methods for carbon sequestration in agricultural soils in the years to come.

Increased sequestration of organic carbon in soils in one of the key measures for the agricultural sector to meet the ambitious mitigations goals set up by the IPCC. In Norway, the importance of this topic has been emphasized notably in the report "Agriculture and Climate Change" in 2016 and in the budget proposition of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food for 2017. This development of knowledge and technologies for sequestration of organic carbon in agricultural soils is currently ongoing at NIBIO and NMBU, with several key projects on this topic. Climate change mitigation is in essence an international issue, where solutions have to be found in common. In this context, the new initiative of FACCE JPI's Thematic Annual Programming (TAP) aim at promoting the international cooperation and coordination of national research projects on soil quality and carbon storage. Therefore, participation of the present NIBIO-NMBU consortia to the JPI TAP activities and network will further strengthen our research activities and we will benefit from (and contribute to) harmonization and planning at the EU level on the crucial topic of increasing the sequestration of organic carbon in soils.