Wang Xiaoqing: To achieve carbon neutrality, agriculture will become the main force in the future

On August 6, at the sub-forum of the "Digital Village" of the 2022 Beijing News Shell Finance Summer Summit, Wang Xiaoqing, chairman of Mizuki Nine Days Agricultural Science and Technology and a leading talent in digital agriculture, said that the key to the development of digital villages is industry, and the future rural development will take sustainable development as the bottom line, production and lifestyle will undergo qualitative changes, and the main data indicator to measure this way is carbon emissions. At present, people have also formed more and more consensus that agriculture will become the main force of carbon neutrality in the future, and the benefits of agricultural carbon neutrality will far exceed the benefits of agricultural products.

Wang Xiaoqing, chairman of Mizuki Nine Days Agricultural Science and Technology and leading talent in digital agriculture. Courtesy of respondents

The Future: A Dual Carbon Strategy and Rural Revitalization

"Recently, people's topics have often involved several keywords such as climate anomalies, normalization of the epidemic and geopolitical frictions, and the uncertainty caused by this has increased." Wang Xiaoqing said that many people will question how the economy will develop in the future. How can companies weather this? In fact, all the problems boil down to the fact that people are facing a new era, which is closely related to the double carbon strategy and the rural revitalization strategy.

The strategy of rural revitalization, by 2050, the comprehensive revitalization of rural areas, the full realization of strong agriculture, rural beauty, and farmers' prosperity; A dual-carbon strategy to peak carbon by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060. These two major strategies will accompany the development of China's economy in the next 30-40 years. Wang Xiaoqing said that it can be seen that although the future is uncertain, in fact, for China, the future is very clear.

"The 2015 Paris Agreement reached a consensus to limit the increase in global average temperature to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to work towards keeping warming within 1.5 degrees Celsius." Wang Xiaoqing said that 1.5 degrees Celsius does not seem to be high, but the temperature rise will bring about a series of climatic anomalies, such as hail in heavy rains in a short period of time, inland typhoons, sea level rise and other issues. After the temperature rises, agricultural production is particularly affected, according to relevant studies, the temperature rises by 1 degree Celsius, different crops will reduce production by 5% to 15%, once the crop yield is reduced, people will face the contradiction between population expansion and food supply, the state has been mentioning food security and agricultural land ban non-farming, non-grain, which is an important factor.

The reporter learned that in the "Special Report on Climate Change and Land" released by the IPCC, it is mentioned that climate change is threatening food security, exacerbating land desertification and soil degradation. The report calls on countries to improve land use patterns, reduce overconsumption and food waste, avoid the destruction and burning of forests, and take comprehensive measures to reduce land-related greenhouse gas emissions and use land in a sustainable manner, which will help humanity cope with climate change and protect against related risks.

Tracking the Carbon Footprint: Reducing Emissions Across the Agricultural Industry Chain

The mainland's promotion of the dual-carbon strategy and its contribution to global sustainable development are not only the responsibilities of a major country, but also a major turning point in China's shift from high-speed development to high-quality development. Wang Xiaoqing said that China's current carbon emissions are 12.6 billion tons per year, accounting for about 50% of global carbon emissions, and it has become the world's largest carbon emitter, and for China, it is necessary to seriously promote the dual-carbon strategy.

In addition to carbon dioxide, the double-carbon strategy also includes emission reductions from nitrogen oxides, methane and other gases. In daily life, people's food, clothing, housing and transportation will invisibly emit carbon, and in agricultural production, some are also carbon emitted, such as rice planting, livestock and poultry breeding. Wang Xiaoqing said that the double carbon strategy is divided into carbon emission reduction and carbon neutrality, photovoltaic power generation is actually carbon emission reduction, and the path of carbon neutrality is actually very small, mainly including wetlands, forests and some agriculture. If we look at the highest standards of forest carbon sequestration, according to the annual carbon sequestration of about 8.76 tons per hectare of 15 acres, the carbon dioxide emitted by China in a year requires nearly two Chinese areas to plant trees. Therefore, China urgently needs a new path to achieve carbon neutrality.

Wang Xiaoqing introduced that in 2016, the IPCC made a separate national greenhouse gas inventory, and clear agricultural emission data have been given for agricultural forestry and other land use. Globally, agricultural emissions account for about 14% of total emissions, and emissions from coal chemicals are even higher.

According to relevant survey data reports, in the production process of ordinary protein and vegetables, different amounts of greenhouse gases will be emitted, and every kilogram of lamb consumed by people is equivalent to 39.2 kilograms of carbon dioxide, every kilogram of pork consumed is equivalent to 12.1 kilograms of carbon dioxide, and each kilogram of rice consumed is equivalent to 2.7 kilograms of carbon dioxide. According to the different habits of people, eating meat emits more carbon. In the food supply chain, it is not difficult to find that in addition to agricultural production, there are processing, storage, transportation and sales and other aspects, can find carbon footprint, according to relevant data analysis, the global annual loss and waste of food processing produces about 4.4 billion tons of carbon dioxide.

Looking at the agricultural industry chain, in the production, processing, transportation, sales and other links, among which the carbon emission loss of the sales link is more, and the emission reduction of the entire agricultural industry chain also needs to focus on reducing loss, reducing chemicals, and reducing water use. Previously, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the mainland released the implementation path of agricultural carbon emission reduction and carbon neutrality, in addition, many countries around the world are promoting related work.

Path to emission reduction: The carbon neutral benefits of agriculture will far exceed those of agricultural products

Wang Xiaoqing said that in the process of promoting double carbon emission reduction in the world, more and more people have formed a consensus that agriculture will become the main force of carbon neutrality in the future, and the benefits of agricultural carbon neutrality will far exceed the income of agricultural products.

"We will find that in fact, the path of emission reduction in various countries and major companies around the world is similar." Wang Xiaoqing introduced that in the EU Common Agricultural Policy, farmland larger than 15 hectares must retain 5% of the farmland ecological area, including fallow land, trees, hedges, grassland or marginal buffer zone, and the EU proposes that the area of organic agriculture in 2030 should reach at least 25% of the total area of agricultural land. In addition, the EU has also issued a "Green New Deal", proposing a farm-to-table strategy, requiring the reduction of environmental impacts in the whole industrial chain such as planting, breeding, production, processing, storage, transportation, packaging, and consumption on the supply side, reducing food losses and waste, promoting energy conservation and consumption reduction and the use of clean energy, and achieving carbon emission reduction in the whole industrial chain.

In Poland, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Cambodia and other countries, in view of the degradation and desertification of land, the main focus is on farmland erosion prevention and soil fertilization remediation to enhance carbon sink capacity. A farm in Iceland, about 90 kilometers from the capital, uses geothermal heat to supply heat from the soil to greenhouse production, with greenhouses relying on sunlight during the day and geothermal heat at night. At the same time, the collection of carbon dioxide produced in industry is used in agricultural production, and crops gain greater production capacity.

The data shows that in the past decade, Iceland's greenhouse productivity has increased significantly, in 2000 the greenhouse area of 200,000 square meters, to 2010 decreased to 185,000 square meters, but Iceland's cucumber self-sufficiency rate has reached more than 90%, celery about 80%, tomatoes more than 70%, lettuce about 35% and so on. Wang Xiaoqing said that it can be found that the shorter the radius of production and sales, the loss of agricultural products will be reduced.

At present, global companies are also working on reducing emissions, Starbucks, McDonald's and KFC, have changed straws to plastic-free straws, which alone can reduce carbon emissions by tens of millions of tons a year. The world's largest seed company has launched a breakthrough product to achieve carbon neutrality, developing a coated seed to protect and promote healthy roots, can absorb more nutrients, more carbon sequestration capacity, this seed root system can be in the soil through more photosynthesis, more carbon dioxide solidified into the soil.

"Many domestic companies are also promoting new solutions for carbon neutrality in agriculture." Wang Xiaoqing introduced, we have established a vegetable factory in a power plant in Hui County, Xinxiang County, Henan Province, covering a total area of about 50 acres, the waste heat of the power plant has become the heat source of the vegetable factory, carbon dioxide has become the gas fertilizer for vegetable planting, through vegetable photosynthesis carbon sequestration, saving 95% water, 45% fertilizer, 99% of artificial labor, to achieve continuous production throughout the year, the output of 30 times the field of international standard safe vegetables, up to 20,000 tons of carbon sequestration.

Wang Xiaoqing said that in the future, people will face a new market, which will be a new model of sustainable development with carbon as the core path, and the future carbon neutrality of agriculture will play a more important role in rural revitalization and urban development.

Beijing News reporter Geng Ziye

Edited by Zhang Shujing Proofreader Zhao Lin