Introduction
In recent months there has been quite a buzz about the potential for agriculture to sequester carbon and be our savior in our fight against climate change. To make sense of it all, we went through an exercise of understanding the carbon sequestration potential of almond orchards in California. Our analysis only looks into the carbon sequestration by the tree biomass and the soil and should not be considered a complete life cycle assessment of growing almonds.
California’s almond industry can sequester anywhere between 1 to ~13 Million Metric Tonnes of CO2 per year or 0.6 to 8 Metric Tonnes of CO2 per acre per year. However, today almond orchards are virtually absent from the state’s compliance offsets carbon crediting program. Making it easier for almond growers to earn carbon credits will lead to more widespread regenerative practices, which will provide jobs in economically disadvantaged rural areas and mitigate climate stresses to humans and wildlife.
For California to stay on target and reduce emissions to 80% below 1990 levels, we need to reduce or remove on average 10 Million Metric Tonnes of CO2 each year, as shown in Figure 1. Our analysis suggests that, in theory, almonds alone can provide that carbon reduction through sequestration.
