Climate & Environment
Soil Carbon
Definition
Soil carbon is the carbon held within soil organic matter — decomposed plant and animal material and microbial biomass. Soils store more carbon than the atmosphere and vegetation combined; management that builds soil organic carbon (cover cropping, reduced tillage, agroforestry, grassland restoration) can sequester atmospheric CO₂ while improving fertility, water retention and resilience, though gains are reversible and hard to measure precisely.
References
Source imported for editorial provenance.
This reference provides supporting context for how “Soil Carbon” is defined and used.
Overview
How it is used
The concept structures carbon farming programmes, soil carbon credit methodologies, regenerative agriculture claims, national GHG inventories and the 4 per 1000 initiative launched at COP21.
Why it matters
Soil is one of the few carbon sinks we can actively rebuild while feeding people — but only if the carbon is real, additional and kept in the ground.