Large-scale deployment of grass in crop rotations as a multifunctional climate mitigation strategy

The agriculture sector can contribute to climate change mitigation by reducing its own greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, sequestering carbon in vegetation and soils, and providing biomass to substitute for fossil fuels and other GHG-intensive products. The sector also needs to address water, soil, and biodiversity impacts caused by historic and current practices. Emerging EU policies create incentives for cultivation of perennial plants that provide biomass along with environmental benefits. One such option, common in northern Europe, is to include grass in rotations with annual crops to provide biomass while remediating soil organic carbon (SOC) losses and other environmental impacts. Here, we apply a spatially explicit model on >81,000 sub-watersheds in EU27+UK (Europe) to explore the effects of widespread deployment of such systems. Based on current accumulated SOC losses in individual sub-watersheds, the model identifies and quantifies suitable areas for increased grass cultivation and corresponding biomass- and protein supply, SOC sequestration, and reductions in nitrogen emissions to water as well as wind and water erosion. Incentivizing widespread deployment will require supportive policy measures as well as new uses of grass biomass, for example, as feedstock for green biorefineries producing protein concentrate, biofuels, and other bio-based products.

ENGLUND Oskar;  MOLA-YUDEGO Blas;  BORJESSON Pal;  CEDERBERG Christel;  DIMITRIOU Ioannis;  SCARLAT Nicolae;  BERNDES Goran; 

2023-01-12

WILEY

JRC126914

1757-1693 (online),   

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/gcbb.13015,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC126914,   

10.1111/gcbb.13015 (online),