Berta & Roux (2024): The endless expansion of carbon offsetting: sequestration by agricultural soils in historical perspective
Nathalie Berta, Alain Roux IN: Cambridge Journal of Economics, beae008, https://doi.org/10.1093/cje/beae008
The growing popularity of the idea of carbon budgets has contributed to a reshaping of climate policy goals in terms of carbon neutrality (net zero emissions) instead of strict emissions reductions. As a consequence, new legitimacy has been given to debatable efforts to use negative emissions for offsetting purposes. In this respect, sequestration by agricultural soils is now presented as a promising way to offset fossil carbon emissions. Adopting a historical perspective, this article studies the way soil sciences and economics amplified the political promise of agricultural sequestration, despite enduring concerns about its non-permanence and reversibility.