Overview

• The Science Policy Forum in Science proposes differentiating biofuel credits based on farm-level carbon intensity and climate-smart practices.
• The authors recommend bundling feedstock value with carbon-offset payments in an integrated market to streamline financial rewards for farmers.
• They advocate using digital agriculture tools and ensembles of process-based ecosystem models to verify practices and quantify annual soil-carbon changes.
• Longer-term contracts are suggested to ensure the permanence of sequestered carbon and discourage farmers from reverting to conventional practices.
• The team estimates that global uptake of these reforms could reduce emissions by 4–8 billion tons per year but notes ongoing challenges around measurement, additionality and land-use trade-offs.