In a Warming World, Agriculture Must Be at the Heart of Climate and Clean Air Action

The world must take urgent, coordinated steps to deliver on both climate and clean air agendas. In March 2025, representatives of governments, inter- and non-governmental organizations converged in Brazil for the Climate and Clean Air Conference to find solutions that would slow global warming and clear pollution from our skies in the near term. Agriculture is at the heart of such solutions. To make them effective, all nations must come together to take determined, ambitious action now. Any delay and we risk ploughing a crooked furrow.

In 2004, average global temperatures exceeded 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels for the first time in history. According to the State of Global Air/2024 report, air pollution contributed to the premature deaths of an estimated 8 million people in 2021. Data indicates that the agrifood sector and those who depend on it are taking a hit from climate-induced temperature extremes and air pollution, losing close to one third of crops in key regions, such as soybeans in Latin America and wheat and maize in Europe and Asia. Globally, 10 per cent of arable land could be infertile by 2050¹ and up to 80 million people at risk of hunger. We need action that is quick, effective and fair.

Reducing emissions of “super pollutants”, including short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) such as methane, black carbon, hydrofluorocarbons and ground-level ozone, as well as the longer-lived nitrous oxide, is the answer. These warming agents, far more potent per tonne than carbon dioxide (CO₂), accelerate the global rise in temperatures. Many of these pollutants reduce soil fertility and crop yields, and contribute to respiratory conditions, including asthma and lung cancer. But most have a short half-life in the atmosphere, ranging from days to decades. So, cutting emissions of super pollutants, in parallel with continuing work to mitigate CO₂, is the quickest way to curb the climate crisis. It will bring benefits in terms of air quality, human and ecosystem health, and food security, too.

Agriculture is a crucial sector for action on super pollutants. It is the largest human-derived source of methane emissions (40 per cent), with 32 per cent due to livestock (from enteric fermentation, which takes place in the digestive systems of animals, and animal manure) and 8 per cent from rice production. Globally, the open burning of crop residues is also responsible for around 5 per cent of black carbon emissions. In some regions, this can reach as much as 30 per cent.

Further, agriculture accounts for 75 per cent of nitrous oxide emissions due to fertilizer use and manure management. And food lost or wasted—about a third of food that has been produced—adds methane emissions again, if we let it rot in dumpsites or landfills.

Conversely, agriculture provides many solutions to tackle super pollutants. Sustainable practices, more efficient systems and cleaner alternatives in agriculture can reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and air pollution, while also improving yields, lives and livelihoods. Using crop residues for bioenergy or as innovative biomaterials, or ploughing them back into the soil instead of burning them in fields, cuts black carbon emissions and creates value for farmers. Alternately wetting and drying rice paddies, rather than flooding them continuously, cuts methane emissions and makes rice production more resilient in the light of increasing pressures on water. Sustainable nitrogen management, including better manure processing and more targeted fertilizer application, reduces ground-level ozone and “PM2.5” particulate matter (that measuring less than 2.5 micrometres in diameter) in air pollution, and can curb production costs at the farm gate. Selective breeding of ozone-resistant crops also reduces crop losses.

Brazil is already taking decisive steps in this direction. As a co-chair of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC), the country has strengthened its multilateral engagement and expanded its efforts across 22 ministries, reflecting a cross-cutting approach to environmental policy. With a CCAC-supported portfolio, Brazil is advancing methane reduction strategies in waste management and agriculture—two key sectors for action. The ABC Plan, in place for over a decade, promotes sustainable livestock practices, including intensive cattle finishing and improved manure management, helping to curb enteric fermentation emissions. Meanwhile, the Ministries of Agriculture and Environment are working to refine national inventories to better inform targeted mitigation measures. These efforts can position Brazil as a leader in the fight against super pollutants, demonstrating that ambitious climate action is both feasible and necessary.

Collaboration with academia, research institutions, the private sector, non-governmental organizations and civil society is key. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and CCAC are implementing a project in Cambodia investigating innovative remote-sensing to monitor methane emissions from paddy rice. In Rwanda, we are working to develop a methane-reduction strategy for the livestock sector and a funding proposal to upscale anaerobic digestion of manure for bioenergy. In Colombia, a road map is being implemented to reduce super pollutants, especially black carbon, from the open burning of rice, maize, sugar cane and other priority crops. Farmers in India are exploring the best way to produce sustainable energy from rice straw residue, including in the form of briquettes or compressed biogas, as an alternative to open burning. New scientific insights will come out later this year with a Global Methane Status Report and an Integrated Agrifood Systems Assessment for the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 30), to be held in Belém, Brazil, from 10 to 21 November 2025.

But these are just the tip of a melting iceberg. We need to scale up the implementation of these solutions to reduce super pollutants. The agricultural sector needs support to implement the practices that will ultimately shape our future climate and the future of food and nutrition security. Less than 5 per cent of climate finance flows towards agrifood system solutions, which are among the best investments for reducing super pollutants and making the sector more resilient. Farmers and other producers need more advice on appropriate techniques, training to use them, financing to implement them and support from like-minded associations to stay the course. Now is the time to double down on supportive public policies, more public and private investment, and more studies on the pathways to more resilient, equitable and sustainable food systems.

To unlock funding, there is one thing nations can do now. They can increase ambitious measures to tackle super pollutants, especially those emanating from agriculture and food systems, in their nationally determined contributions, as well as CO₂ mitigation measures, ahead of COP 30 in November. Raising their sights will attract the money, technology and training resources needed, from both public and private sources. This will help them achieve climate mitigation, while at the same time ensuring the health, food security and livelihoods of millions in their care.

On the road to Belém this year, the focus on super pollutants could be one of the most effective actions we take to secure a better tomorrow for us all. There is no time to lose and no excuse for delay. Proven, relatively inexpensive measures are readily available, and the benefits are numerous. Targeted action to reduce emissions of short-lived climate super pollutants could help save the future.

Notes

¹Jon Sampedro and others, “Future impacts of ozone driven damages on agricultural systems”, Atmospheric Environment, vol. 231,117538 (2020). Available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2020.117538.