How biopesticides reduce carbon emissions in agriculture

Climate change is already affecting pest pressure in agriculture. A warming climate means pests have more reproductive cycles in a year and better survival over winter, leading to even more pest pressure in the spring. It also increases the risk of invasive and migratory pests and the diseases they carry (1). All of this adds up to more crop loss and food insecurity. How do we deal with increased pest pressure?

More synthetic pesticides are not an option!

Ninety-nine percent of synthetic pesticides are derived from petroleum (2). In 2021, 3.53 million metric tons of pesticides were used globally (3). The average estimated carbon equivalent emissions (CO2e) from pesticide production, packaging, storage, and distribution for active ingredients of 38 different synthetic pesticides is 5.1 kg CO2e/kg (4). The estimated global carbon equivalent emissions for producing the pesticides used in 2021 are 18 million metric tons. The 18 million metric tons of CO2e from pesticides may not look like a lot right now, but this number can increase in a very short time.

Let me tell you how an invasive pest, the soybean aphid, a native of eastern Asia, increased carbon emissions from 0.2 million kg CO2e to 40 million kg CO2e within 6 years (5). It started in the summer of 2000 when they were detected in US soybean…