USDA Announces Progress in Efforts to Improve Measurement, Monitoring, Reporting and Verification of Greenhouse Gas Emissions through President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda

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WASHINGTON, July 12, 2024  – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced today significant progress over the past year in its efforts to improve,  climate mitigation estimates for conservation programs and the national inventory. This supports USDA’s broader objective to improve the measurement, monitoring, reporting and verification of greenhouse gas emissions and carbon sequestration in climate-smart agriculture. 

One year ago, USDA announced seven focus areas for investment in greenhouse gas Measurement, Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MMRV), funded through the Inflation Reduction Act. Today, USDA released several presentations conducted by the leaders of each of the action areas that provide information about the workplans and progress made to date toward accomplishing their goals. This effort is a collaboration among USDA agencies – including Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Agricultural Research Service, the Economic Research Service, the National Agricultural Statistics Service, the National Institute of Food and Agriculture and the Office of the Chief Economist’s Office of Energy and Environmental Policy. 

“From the beginning, the Biden-Harris administration has taken bold steps in climate-smart agriculture, including investing in the science behind the solutions to address climate change,” USDA’s Under Secretary for Farm Production and Conservation Robert Bonnie said. 

“The role of science is to increase the accuracy, reduce the uncertainty, and enhance the overall confidence in the data and measurement of greenhouse gas emissions,” said USDA’s Under Secretary for Research, Education and Economics and Chief Scientist Dr. Chavonda Jacobs-Young. “Using Inflation Reduction Act funding, made possible by President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, USDA can provide this objective and quality science in support of sound and effective policy.”

The plans for these focus areas were informed by USDA consultation with external experts and interest holders through conferences and meetings.  

The Inflation Reduction Act provided $300 million to measure, evaluate, quantify carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas emission reductions from conservation investments.  These funds will support a comprehensive strategy to improve data, models and tools needed for quantifying the impact of conservation practices on GHG emissions and carbon sequestration.  

Some of the progress made under these focus areas and through many other USDA investments include:

• Investing $10 million in two visionary and transdisciplinary projects that will advance the science of reducing methane — a potent greenhouse gas — produced naturally by ruminant animals. The projects are funded through the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative's Sustainable Agricultural Systems program, which aligns with the U.S. government’s response to the Global Methane Pledge that President Biden made in September 2021.
• Investing $12 million through a National Science Foundation partnership to establish the AI Institute for Climate-Land Interactions, Mitigation, Adaptation, Tradeoffs and Economy (AI-CLIMATE) at the University of Minnesota. The Institute — a joint effort between six Land-grant Universities — aims to advance foundational artificial intelligence by incorporating knowledge from agriculture and forestry sciences, and leveraging these unique, new methods to curb climate effects while lifting rural economies. 
• Establishing a national research and monitoring network to collect and synthesize multi-scale data on methane and nitrous oxide emissions to quantify greenhouse gas mitigation potential. The data will be used to update and improve models, reducing model uncertainty and improving greenhouse gas estimates for conservation programs and the National Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks.
• Leading extensive greenhouse gas measurement from cropland and pasturelands, animal housing and manure storage facilities, enteric methane from beef and dairy, and tall towers for regional assessment to measure methane and nitrous oxide greenhouse gasses at more than 30 locations across the country. 
• Continuing collaboration under the Greenhouse Gas Reduction through Agricultural Carbon Enhancement (GRACEnet) network. GRACEnet is a research program to better quantify greenhouse gas emissions from cropped and grazed soils and further develop improved management practices that will enhance carbon sequestration in soils, decrease GHG emissions, promote sustainability and provide a sound scientific basis for carbon credits and GHG trading programs.
• Strengthening the Long-Term Agroecosystem Research (LTAR) Network. LTAR is a growing group of researchers focused on finding solutions that maintain or increase agricultural productivity, environmental quality, and people well-being despite environmental pressures such as climate change.
• Establishing and using the Partnerships for Data Innovations (PDI) to accelerate agricultural research, including for MMRV, by developing practical, innovative data solutions. This effort catalyzes collaborative research engagement across the government, universities and other institutions by leveraging data-driven technologies for data management and data stewardship. By developing and implementing state-of-the-art digital tools and leveraging off-the-shelf technologies, PDI has transformed more than 100 projects through active, inclusive partnership and through sharing solutions on a “Digital Research Workbench.”  
• Enhancing the Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP), a multi-agency effort to quantify the effects of conservation practices across the nation’s working lands. CEAP findings are used to guide conservation program development and support conservationists, agricultural producers, and partners in choosing the most effective conservation actions and making informed management decisions backed by data and science.
• Improving the temporal and spatial coverage of national conservation activity data (FY23-FY31) by identifying data needs and sources for conservation activity coverage comprising crop and livestock practices with GHG implications.

All these efforts for improving accuracy and reducing uncertainty in greenhouse gas estimates support the broader USDA Measurement, Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification effort as well as the National Strategy to Advance an Integrated Greenhouse Gas Measurement, Monitoring, and Information System.  

More Information 

For additional details about USDA’s greenhouse gas quantification effort, see this fact sheet. 

The National Strategy to Advance an Integrated Greenhouse Gas Measurement, Monitoring, and Information System was prepared by the Greenhouse Gas Measurement and Monitoring Interagency Working Group, created in January 2022 to enhance coordination of the measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification of greenhouse gas emissions and removals in support of climate efforts at the local, regional, and national levels. The working group is co-led by the Office of Management and Budget, Office of Science and Technology Policy, and White House Climate Policy Office. The group also includes the Department of Agriculture, Department of Commerce, Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Department of the Interior, Department of State, Environmental Protection Agency, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and National Science Foundation. 

USDA touches the lives of all Americans each day in so many positive ways. Under the Biden-Harris administration, USDA is transforming America’s food system with a greater focus on more resilient local and regional food production, fairer markets for all producers, ensuring access to safe, healthy and nutritious food in all communities, building new markets and streams of income for farmers and producers using climate smart food and forestry practices, making historic investments in infrastructure and clean energy capabilities in rural America, and committing to equity across the Department by removing systemic barriers and building a workforce more representative of America. To learn more, visit usda.gov. 

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