Land & Water Stewardship

CEOS faculty and students: Amy Ando, Jonathan Coppess, Shadi Atallah, Madhu Khanna, Benjamin Gramig

Funding: Illinois Farm Bureau

Agriculture has the potential to reduce nutrient loadings in surface waters of the U.S. and net carbon emissions that contribute to the clear and existential threat posed by climate change. But what is the best role that agriculture can play in carbon trading markets to provide value for both agricultural producers and society, and to ensure the credit system has enough real impact on net carbon emissions that it remains viable in years to come? How can credits for nutrient and carbon reductions be stacked and aligned to best capture synergies in those systems for agricultural producers and the people that stand to benefit from environmental improvements? What roles can be played by public policy and private markets to facilitate or support these fledgling markets? CEOS is synthesizing and extending previous research about carbon and nutrient trading using a case study in the Midwest to demonstrate clearly to policy makers how systems of carbon and nutrient trading can be designed.