Climate change solutions
We deliver game-changing environmental solutions that have a real impact for people around the globe.
Building resilient land and water systems that allow people and nature to prosper in a changing climate.
With rising costs, tighter margins and more uncertainty on the farm, it’s harder than ever for America’s farmers and ranchers to stay competitive. Historically, innovation has helped U.S. agriculture do more with less through increasing yields while managing costs. But today, producers are not only navigating domestic pressures. They are also facing intensifying global competition from countries like Brazil, where productivity levels, while not yet on par with U.S. growers, are improving and benefit from multiple growing cycles per year.
As new agricultural technologies continue to emerge across the sector, U.S. policy must keep pace to ensure producers can translate innovation into real, on-the-ground gains and remain globally competitive without being undercut by uneven market conditions.
Our analysis of nearly 400 companies and their innovations — from early-stage startups to large enterprises — shows that American agriculture can play a transformational role in accelerating emissions-reducing practices and technologies. We identified five key areas that demonstrate both market-readiness and strong potential to increase farm productivity:
To support both the adoption of existing innovations and the development of new ones, Congress has an opportunity to expand funding for research and on-farm adoption, advance supportive legislation, and invest in emerging technologies that help farmers boost productivity and strengthen the long-term resilience of U.S. agriculture.
The U.S. has captured 41% ($6.6 billion) of the $16 billion global agtech market, underscoring investor confidence and America’s leadership in the industry. Maintaining this position in a rapidly evolving global economy is not self-sustaining without continued investment.
Much of the existing investment targets technology and outputs that are already defined and clear, which leaves an opportunity gap to accelerate innovation from the lab to the field.
When I first came back to the farm, one of the first challenges my dad gave me was to try to get our soybean yield above 50 bushels to the acre. And so I went to work collecting harvest data from our equipment. We started taking grid samples of the whole farm and started finding hot spots. It’s easy doing precision. And within two years, we’re averaging closer to 60 [bushels per acre] now.
Ty Graham is part of the American Farmers for Conservation affiliation and is a rice, corn and soybean farmer of G&G Farm in Arkansas.
One key opportunity to do this is fully funding the Agriculture Advanced Research and Development Authority (AgARDA). Modeled after successful research agencies at the Departments of Defense and Energy, AgARDA was authorized at a level that reflects its potential, but has yet to receive sufficient appropriations, leaving a powerful tool that could provide high risk, high reward results for farmers underutilized.
At the same time, scaling up AgARDA alone is not sufficient. Breakthrough research only delivers value if it is paired with the infrastructure needed to test, validate and scale promising technologies. Fully funding AgARDA is a critical first step in building this broader ecosystem — so technologies don’t stall between the lab and the field.
Farmers and ranchers need practical tools that deliver real returns on the ground. Bipartisan solutions like the EMIT LESS Act would strengthen USDA’s capacity to test and validate enteric methane-reducing products and practices, expand on-farm innovation trials and support voluntary adoption through existing conservation programs. All of this will help producers improve efficiency while managing risks to their operations.
With the right mix of tools, investments and policies, U.S. agriculture can meet today’s challenges and seize tomorrow’s opportunities. Strategic public and private investment can help farmers adopt innovative conservation practices that lower costs, improve efficiency and strengthen environmental outcomes.
By supporting research and scaling proven solutions, the U.S. can ensure our agricultural sector continues to lead globally in productivity and innovation, securing economic stability for rural communities while protecting air, water and soil for future generations.
By: Karly Kelso, Vrashabh Kapate, and Sarah Swain
Reposted from EDF’s Climate 411
COP30 in Belém, Brazil revealed a striking paradox for food systems. Pavilions buzzed with urgency as indigenous communities, local leaders, farmers, and youth demanded immediate action on nature and food. Yet formal negotiations told a different story: the final COP text mentioned food only once – with no mention of food systems as a whole – despite clear scientific consensus that sustainable agri-food systems are vital to move the needle on climate.
So, without perfect COP outcome text, how can we convert this on-the-ground momentum into results? One way forward is through the COP30 Action Agenda – the delivery track that organizes governments, development banks, companies, and civil society around shared priorities and moves projects into implementation when formal text doesn’t go far enough.
The Action Agenda clusters work around six thematic axes – including food and agriculture – and uses activation groups of small, convened teams to set near-term milestones, build pipelines, and get finance moving.
As we come to the end of another record-breaking year for extreme weather, we can see the effects on our plates. Climate change is on the table for both producers and consumers, and leaders must continue to drive global visions forward with local solutions, connecting how critical producers and consumers are to each other.
As the global climate conference COP30 concluded this year, Brazil had the daunting task of pursuing the unity and multilateralism that United Nations processes call for in the name of people and the planet. But what was clear from COP30 is that the agrifood systems community has been successful in helping climate leaders understand that the critical impact of agriculture and food on climate change (and vice versa) requires full-scale engagement.
We can build that deep engagement by creating win-win solutions, supporting adaptation as a means to mitigation and connecting each piece — from behavior change to science and innovation to financial incentives — for a genuine ecosystem approach.
Authors: Alison Eagle, Jocelyn Lavallee, Renske Hijbeek
Soil is one of our best allies in tackling climate change, but it’s also one of the most misunderstood. Myths about what soil can (and can’t) do still shape global debates. That’s why scientists from Environmental Defense Fund and Wageningen University dug into the data to bring clarity. Because sound science is the foundation of sound policy.
Why soil matters.
Healthy soils are essential for climate change mitigation and sustainable food production. But while improving soil carbon is part of the solution, it’s not a silver bullet. Real progress requires a whole food-system approach that balances production, consumption, and land use – while cutting emissions across agriculture and beyond.
The Trump administration has just announced that they will redefine which wetlands and waters have Clean Water Act protections in a new proposed Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule. This rule creates tremendous uncertainty and risk for our nation’s drinking water, flood protections and critical habitats. Based on our peer-reviewed analysis, the new wetland rules could leave nearly all wetlands without Clean Water Act protections.
New York City faces a twin crisis: housing that is increasingly unaffordable, unavailable and unsafe, and climate impacts—like flooding, sea level rise and extreme heat—that are growing more frequent and severe. In fact, more than half of all households are rent-burdened and tens of thousands of those homes are facing climate risks. Low-income residents and communities of color are affected disproportionately by both crises.
By Mallory Honan, Scientist, Livestock Methane; Jack Killcoyne, Senior Research Analyst, Global Livestock Methane; Peri Rosenstein, Senior Scientist, Livestock Systems
A dairy cow’s diet is an integral part of her well-being and productivity; it’s also a critical opportunity for reducing methane emissions. Similar to humans, what cows eat impacts their ability to live healthy, productive lives. Therefore, a major priority for farmers and nutritionists is formulating a diet that satisfies their cows’ dietary requirements.
Unlike humans, though, cows are ruminants — animals that have a compartmentalized digestive organ (three pre-stomachs and one true stomach) — and they digest food very differently. The largest component of their pre-stomach and main site of digestion is aptly named the rumen. This chamber acts as a fermentation vat, with microbes breaking down nutrients from feed. The cow then burps out methane produced as a byproduct via these microbial digestive processes, also known as enteric fermentation.
Managing the Mississippi River Basin at a state level is like making a movie without the director, writers, and actors talking to each other. Despite being the largest watershed in the country, the Mississippi River Basin has no comprehensive restoration program.
Farmers and ranchers around the world face increased heatwaves, droughts and heavy rainfall, making it harder to grow livestock and crops. This means less financial security for farm families and, globally, bigger threats to people’s access to nutrition.
By Elizabeth Montoya-LaPorte, Intern, Climate Resilient Coasts and Watersheds
Virginia faces a diverse set of flood risks, with sea level rise on the eastern coast, landslides exasperating flood risk in the west and more intense and frequent storms throughout the Commonwealth. Between 2020 and 2060, the number of buildings exposed to an extreme coastal flood is projected to nearly double, while annualized flood damages could increase by 400 percent.
To build resilience against these increasing flood risks, lawmakers created the Virginia Community Flood Preparedness Fund (CFPF) in 2020 under the Virginia Clean Energy and Community Flood Preparedness Act. Since its establishment, the CFPF has supported 86 communities and 212 projects, investing more than 200 million dollars in resilience-building funding.
