Recommendations for international collaborative action

A1. Increased international climate finance should be directed toward unlocking the potential of sustainable agricultural technologies and approaches with proven effectiveness

Given this year’s focus on reducing enteric methane emissions from livestock (though feed additives and low-methane forages) and reducing emissions from fertilizer production, via green ammonia and field application (SSNM), we recommend the following actions:

• Undertake efforts to ensure that green ammonia, feed additives (methane inhibitors), enhanced efficiency fertilizers, and low-methane forages can benefit from green finance, particularly in high-income countries, by being included in Climate Bonds Initiative (CBI) Agriculture Criteria (under efforts to reduce GHG emissions, where the science has been proven), which in turn will make these investments a part of country taxonomies and regions, e.g., the EU taxonomy of permissible activities for green finance. Inclusion in CBI criteria and national/regional taxonomies would lead to both demand creation spurring innovations and making these investments eligible for green finance. Similarly, when an industry is involved (e.g., for green ammonia and methane inhibitors), setting emissions-reduction targets under the Science-based Target Initiatives (SbTI) will also spur investments in innovations geared toward emissions reductions in this sector.
• Encourage multilateral development banks and donor countries to provide concessional loans and grants for the two technologies that are particularly appropriate for LMICs, namely low-methane forages and fertilizer application with SSNM, where there are large opportunities for productivity improvement as well as reducing emissions, but upfront costs are a barrier to action. Such financing will also incentivize the development and scaling of carbon markets and impact financing with the private sector, create special credit lines within banking systems, and establish blended finance mechanisms that combine public and private investments.
• Seek and obtain international consensus on “repurposing” the more than US$600 billion spent annually by governments on agricultural support. Considering that much of the support provided to agriculture is market distorting and incentivizes unsustainable production, public support should be redirected. One of the most promising shifts in such investments would be an increase in funding for R&D dedicated to productivity-enhancing and emissions-reducing technologies. Investment in agricultural R&D is one of the most effective ways to reduce poverty and holds significant potential for addressing climate change.
• The Breakthrough Agenda should make stronger linkages to G7 and G20 agendas where parallel decisions are taking place to direct investment for broader development and environment objectives in agrifood systems. For example, the findings from this report should be presented to the G20 Task Force for a Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty to demonstrate that there are scalable technologies that can meet both hunger and climate goals simultaneously and those need financial support for upscaling.

A2. Promote international sharing of knowledge on policy and implementation to create demand for and facilitate faster uptake of proven technologies

This year’s recommendation focuses on demand creation for innovations in low-emission technologies through the following concrete actions:

• Encourage governments to sign a NUE Pledge along the lines of the Methane Pledge. Such an NUE pledge will help reduce nitrous oxide emissions, as nitrogenous fertilizer is the top source of nitrous oxide emissions. NUE measures how much of the nitrogen applied is taken up by crops. Optimal NUE is between 75 and 90 percent (anything above 90 percent indicates that nutrients are mined from the soil because of insufficient nitrogen application) and will vary depending on soil conditions, weather and crop type (IFA 2022). On average, global NUE is estimated to be 55 percent, with wide geographic variations (FAO 2024). A pledge to reach a global NUE of 70 percent by 2030 is ambitious but feasible with appropriate policies and financial support (Zhang et al. 2015). IFA has set a similar target, but aimed at 2040 (IFA 2022). Once such a pledge is set, each country would need to look at how best to achieve this – in countries with NUE above 90 percent, more rather than less nitrogen would be required to reach optimal NUE. Such pledges, supported by appropriate policies, will generate demand for innovations to reduce nitrous oxide emissions and achieve optimum NUE, which will also help mobilize climate finance. This recommendation targets both production and use of fertilizers.
• Countries should work together within Codex Alimentarius of the FAO-WHO to establish a food safety maximum residue limit of inhibitor compounds in livestock products. Such standards will help facilitate the trade of products containing inhibitors.
• Countries should take advantage of the existing Methane Pledge and incentivize demand creation globally for methane inhibitors and low-methane forages through specific technology use pledges and targets. These will be supported by financial incentives including carbon offsetting and national tax incentives to encourage producer uptake of technologies and consumer purchase of low-methane dairy and meat. As supply increases and the enabling environment improves, regulation forcing use of these emission-reducing technologies can be considered.
• Countries should take advantage of existing platforms such as the World Bank and the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) facilitated Global Agriculture Policy Dialogues to engage in intensive exchanges of knowledge on questions such as which policies are most effective for encouraging and supporting farmers’ adoption of SSNM and low-methane forages, to facilitate knowledge exchange and learning. Similarly, these Policy Dialogues should also engage with countries and the private sector to exchange best practices and barriers to a quicker transition to green ammonia and higher adoption of feed additives.

A3. Develop common metrics and indicators to track the adoption of sustainable agricultural solutions

These recommendations suggest concrete ways to develop standards, targets, metrics, and indicators that will spur innovations in reducing enteric methane emissions from livestock and reducing emissions from fertilizer production and field application.

Fertilizers remain crucial for food production and global food security. The move toward greener fertilizers through low-carbon production and innovative fertilizer solutions aimed at enhancing NUE would be encouraged by requirements for industry pledges coordinated across multiple countries and regions. Specifically, these actions can take the shape of the following:

• Fertilizer companies must be encouraged to expand their GHG accounting to include the GHG emitted as a result of fertilizer application in the field (so-called Scope 3 emissions). Greater scrutiny of Scope 3 emissions can incentivize greater efforts to reduce nitrous oxide emissions from fertilizer application and enhance NUE. For example, Nutrien, a Canadian producer of potash and nitrogen fertilizer, is already doing this through its Carbon Program and Sustainable Nitrogen Outcomes program, and could serve as a model for other fertilizer companies seeking to understand and measure their Scope 3 emissions while helping growers reduce theirs.
• Governments could set deployment targets for existing and planned ammonia facilities. Examples of such targets could be 30 percent of existing ammonia production facilities installing carbon capture and storage (CCS) infrastructure for capturing carbon dioxide by 2030, and mandating that all new ammonia plants set up henceforward produce green ammonia. This can be achieved through technology-forcing policies (following the example of the Zero Emission Vehicle Program of California). This approach would incentivize industry players to move toward green ammonia production, though the private sector could also lead by example and set their own targets for CCS on their green ammonia facilities.
• Governments should also set a target of deploying 80 GW of new renewables-powered electrolyzers, of which Green Hydrogen Catapult members have already committed 45 GW. To further stimulate increased low-carbon ammonia production, the industry should undertake a complete reporting structure or certification mechanism that will report the full production carbon dioxide equivalent footprint and the captured carbon of an associated ton.

Specific recommendations for the livestock sector (methane inhibitors) for common metrics and indicators include the following:

• Set up clear globally aligned regulatory frameworks and MRV requirements to ensure a fair playing field and credible GHG emission reporting to speed up scaling of methane inhibitors (feed supplements), which in the short term can deliver immediate and significant methane reductions in zero-grazing and grazing with feed supplementation livestock production systems. Further, we recommend collaboration among research institutions and international organizations (e.g., OECD, ISO) and the private sector and carbon market standards (e.g., Verra, Gold Standard, Plan Vivo) to develop and standardize cost-effective methodologies for evaluating standards for feed additives and low-methane forages across diverse socioeconomic and environmental contexts.

Overall, and of relevance to all low-emission agricultural technologies considered in this report and elsewhere, we recommend that:

• Countries should come together and develop “Codex Planetarius” along the lines of Codex Alimentarius, which develops internationally agreed food safety standards. This idea was first developed by The Markets Institute at WWF, who launched a two-year proof of concept to assess the overall viability of this concept at COP28 (Clay 2023). Codex Planetarius can set forth criteria for crops and animal-derived products (that is, end products for consumption) to be certified as compatible with international climate targets, which will then incentivize all actors in the value chain, such as fertilizer and livestock producers, to adopt low-emission and climate-compatible technologies. Adherence to Codex Alimentarius confers a presumption of compliance with the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures. Similarly, adherence to Codex Planetarius could confer similar presumption of compliance with the WTO.

A4. Increase support for food system research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) to support the uptake and scaling of promising technologies and approaches

Given this year’s focus on fertilizer and livestock emissions reductions, specific recommendations on RD&D are as follows:

• Strengthen global knowledge exchange by expanding and strengthening The Nutrient Management Network of the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases. This recommendation is particularly suitable for reducing emissions from the field application of fertilizer. This would involve assembling scientific expertise in novel science areas; supporting the development of evidence-based decision support tools (e.g., artificial intelligence) and their translation into forms that diverse stakeholders can interact with; organizing science communication around best practices for nitrogen fertilizer recommendations and facilitating multistakeholder interactions (to exchange data, information, and lessons learned and use such coordination functions to provide technical support to fertilizer-related investment programs). Such decision support tools should account for local soil and weather conditions when determining the right application rates.
• The fertilizer industry must be mandated by governments to report on R&D spending and commit to higher spending levels on green innovations, as it is increasingly evident that increased spending on R&D underpins innovation. Currently, there are no estimates of R&D spending by the fertilizer industry.
• Taking advantage of the active livestock research group of the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (GRA), invest in the continued research on methane-inhibiting technologies and low-methane forages by documenting early success stories and increasing farmer options and market competition. Capacity building is required to undertake necessary research, particularly in LMICs. The GRA can also act as a global platform to centralize and facilitate greater sharing of data between public, commercial, scientific, and regulatory bodies for the development of standardized, science-based approaches to measuring product impacts, global standards, metrics, and accounting for methane reduction including through the use of methane inhibitors, low-methane forages, and other such technologies. Initiatives such as the Global Methane Hub’s Enteric Methane R&D Accelerator provide opportunities for global research collaboration.

A5. International efforts should work toward enabling the private sector to scale up solutions through global markets

We recommend:

• Reviving the moribund WTO Agreement on Environmental Goods and Services. Plurilateral negotiations for an Environmental Goods Agreement were started in 2014 to promote trade in essential environmental products, i.e., solar panels and wind turbines. In future negotiations, the list of green goods and services should include low-carbon fertilizers like green ammonia and livestock feed additives, among other emissions-reducing technologies. This would involve advocating for harmonized standards, certifications, and accounting methodologies with multilateral organizations such as WTO and various UN agencies and is related to the previous recommendation on Codex Planetarius, where such standards would be agreed upon, and once agreed upon, products that meet the Codex Planetarius would be conferred the presumption of compliance by the WTO, facilitating trade in green and low-emission agricultural products.