Can Soil Organic Carbon Offset Climate Change?

The Intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soils (ITPS) of the Global Soil Partnership (GSP) has released a briefing paper on the role of soil organic carbon (SOC) in offsetting climate change. The paper reviews recent research on SOC and concludes that actions to reverse the loss of soil organic matter could be one of the most effective tools to mitigate climate change. The paper reviews research showing that soils contain more carbon than atmosphere and all plant life combined, noting that increasing carbon storage in soils is relatively simple compared to approaches to use geoengineering to avert climate change