Agricultural greenhouse gas mitigation potential globally, in <scp>E</scp>urope and in the <scp>UK</scp>: what have we learnt in the last 20 years?

Abstract Agricultural lands occupy about 40–50% of the E arth's land surface. Agricultural practices can make a significant contribution at low cost to increasing soil carbon sinks, reducing greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions and contributing biomass feedstocks for energy use. Considering all gases, the global technical mitigation potential from agriculture (excluding fossil fuel offsets from biomass) by 2030 is estimated to be ca. 5500–6000 Mt CO 2 ‐eq. yr −1 . Economic potentials are estimated to be 1500–1600, 2500–2700 and 4000–4300 Mt CO 2 ‐eq. yr −1 at carbon prices of up to $ US 20, 50 and 100 t CO 2 ‐eq. −1 , respectively. The value of the global agricultural GHG mitigation at the same three carbon prices is $ US 32 000, 130 000 and 420 000 million yr −1 , respectively. At the E uropean level, early estimates of soil carbon sequestration potential in croplands were ca. 200 Mt CO 2 yr −1 , but this is a technical potential and is for geographical E urope as far east as the U rals. The economic potential is much smaller, with more recent estimates for the EU 27 suggesting a maximum potential of ca. 20 Mt CO 2 ‐eq. yr −1 . The UK is small in global terms, but a large part of its land area (11 Mha) is used for agriculture. Agriculture accounts for about 7% of total UK GHG emissions. The mitigation potential of UK agriculture is estimated to be ca. 1–2 Mt CO 2 ‐eq. yr −1 , accounting for less than 1% of UK total GHG emissions.