The 4p1000 initiative: Opportunities, limitations and challenges for implementing soil organic carbon sequestration as a sustainable development strategy
Open accessAbstract
Climate change adaptation, mitigation and food security may be addressed at the same time by enhancing soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration through environmentally sound land management practices. This is promoted by the “4 per 1000” Initiative, a multi-stakeholder platform aiming at increasing SOC storage through sustainable practices. The scientific and technical committee of the Initiative is working to identify indicators, research priorities and region-specific practices needed for their implementation. The Initiative received its name due to the global importance of soils for climate change, which can be illustrated by a thought experiment showing that an annual growth rate of only 0.4% of the standing global SOC stocks would have the potential to counterbalance the current increase in atmospheric CO 2 . However, there are numerous barriers to the rise in SOC stocks and while SOC sequestration can contribute to partly offsetting greenhouse gas emissions, its main benefits are related to increased soil quality and climate change adaptation. The Initiative provides a collaborative platform for policy makers, practitioners, scientists and stakeholders to engage in finding solutions. Criticism of the Initiative has been related to the poor definition of its numerical target, which was not understood as an aspirational goal. The objective of this paper is to present the aims of the initiative, to discuss critical issues and to present challenges for its implementation. We identify barriers, risks and trade-offs and advocate for collaboration between multiple parties in order to stimulate innovation and to initiate the transition of agricultural systems toward sustainability.
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SOC remains vulnerable to losses and is sensitive to a range of environmental factors, and this vulnerability remains poorly understood.
“Although some authors argue that this is realistic (Rumpel et al., 2019), SOC remains vulnerable to losses and is sensitive to a range of environmental factors. This vulnerability remains poorly understood.”
From Carbon for soils, not soils for carbon (2023) · cites this paper as Rumpel et al., 2019
The citation in the printed sentence is attached to the assertion that the 4p1000 target is realistic, not directly to the subsequent vulnerability statements. The Critiques of the 4P1000 Initiative section describes that target as aspirational and uncertain rather than established as achievable. The Biophysical limits and barriers section does support SOC’s vulnerability to losses and changing conditions, but does not clearly state that this vulnerability remains poorly understood (page numbers unavailable). (LLM, conf=0.82)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredInterpreting global SOC sequestration estimates in terms of their climate change mitigation potential is problematic because of well-known limitations.
“Interpreting global SOC sequestration estimates in terms of their climate change mitigation potential is problematic because of a number of well- known limitations as briefly mentioned in the previous section (Baveye et al., 2018; Powlson et al., 2011; Rumpel et al., 2019).”
From Carbon for soils, not soils for carbon (2023) · cites this paper as Rumpel et al., 2019
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Cites
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Carbon for soils, not soils for carbon
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- Authors
- Rumpel, C., Amiraslani, F., Chenu, C., Garcia Cardenas, M., Kaonga, M., Koutika, L.-S., Ladha, J., Madari, B., Shirato, Y., Smith, P., Soudi, B., Soussana, J.-F., Whitehead, D., & Wollenberg, E.
- Affiliations
- University of Tehran (IR)
- AgroParisTech (FR)
- University of Cambridge (GB)
- University of California, Davis (US)
- Embrapa (BR)
- National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (JP)
- University of Aberdeen (GB)
- Institut Agronomique et Vétérinaire Hassan II (MA)
- Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (FR)
- Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research (NZ)
- University of Vermont (US)
- ORCID
- Venue
- Ambio
- Published
- 2019-03-23
- Volume
- 49
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 350-360
- ISSN
- 0044-7447 (ISSN-L)
- 1654-7209
- PMC
- PMC6889108
- OpenAlex
- W2939119832
- Cited by
- 409
- References
- 7
- Citations by year
- 2026: 25 · 2025: 64 · 2024: 100 · 2023: 59 · 2022: 62 · 2021: 66 · 2020: 28 · 2019: 5
- FWCI
- 32.04
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- other-oa
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- AMBIO (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- HAL (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Aberdeen University Research Archive (Aberdeen University) (submittedVersion)
- CGSPace A Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research) (submittedVersion)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Natural Environment Research Council (NE/P019455/1)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Soil Science › Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Soil Science › Soil erosion and sediment transport
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › General Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Plant and soil sciences
- Keywords
- 4 per 1000 initiative, soil organic carbon sequestration, sustainable land management, climate change mitigation, climate change adaptation, soil quality, multi-stakeholder collaboration, food security
- MeSH terms
- Sustainable Development, Agriculture, Carbon, Soil, Carbon Sequestration
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