New report warns Soil health will be the missing solution in Global Climate Change mitigation at COP 30
At the COP30 summit, a new report released on 10th November 2025 from the UNEP, IUCN, WFP, and FAO backed Save Soil campaign, unearths critical gaps on soil and agriculture in the majority of nations’ National Determined Contributions (NDCs) – a country’s climate action plan submitted under the Paris Agreement.
Titled “Solution Instead of Victim: Integrating Soil Health into Nationally Determined
Contributions (NDCs) for Climate Change Mitigation”, the report’s key finding is that over 70% of nations do not feature soil as a climate change mitigation tool in their NDCs. This is a shocking and critical gap, as soil’s potential as a carbon sink has long been documented and recognised, making this omission all the more stark. In 2021, the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation outlined that soils were the world’s largest carbon sink after oceans.
Outlining the vast carbon sequestration potential of soils, the report’s findings reveal that:
• Up to 27% of emission cuts needed to keep global warming below a 2°C rise could be achieved and sequestered by restoring agricultural soil health.
• The world’s soils hold 45% more carbon than previously estimated.
• Revitalising soil health through regenerative practices can reduce fertilizer-related
emissions by as much as 80% by 2050.
Australia has not submitted their third NDC. Their second NDC, submitted in September 2025, outlines strong commitments to ecosystem restoration and biodiversity, yet lacks measurable soil-carbon or soil-health targets. Given its vast agricultural lands, including soil indicators in its future climate reporting would enhance transparency and highlight agriculture’s mitigation role.
Agriculture, accounting for almost 30% of global GHG emissions, also has the potential to become a significant source of carbon capture. This, however, remains unacknowledged in the NDCs which primarily consider transformation of energy and transport sectors as mitigation solutions. Countries include agriculture and soil only in their adaptation plans, and not invest in soils as a solution for climate change.
Conversely, degrading soils act as carbon emitters. The report outlines if just 1% of carbon contained in Europe’s soils alone were to be released, would be equal to the annual emissions of 1 billion cars. Globally, 40% of the planet’s land is degraded.
Praveena Sridhar, Chief Scientific and Policy Advisor of the Save Soil Movement commented on the situation: “The world has a 45% larger-than-expected carbon bank right under its feet, yet our current climate mitigation plans largely fail to treat soil health as the powerful, cost-effective climate solution it is. We urge policymakers to immediately prioritize soil health through regenerative agricultural practices as part of their climate mitigation and financing strategies.
These can include simple practices such as cover cropping, no-till farming and crop rotation.”
According to recent review-reports from the British Ecological Society (2025) and World Bank (2024), regenerative agriculture techniques such as year-round ground cover, diverse rotations and integrated livestock show strong evidence of improving soil structure, organic matter content and biological activity – all key indicators of soil health
“Having been a regenerative farmer for over 25 years, and having supported tens of thousands of farmers in their transition to regenerative practices, I’ve consistently observed that soil health improves dramatically with the adoption of these techniques. This leads to higher productivity, reduced chemical use, and greater resilience. The same practices that restore our soils also store carbon — turning farms into part of the climate solution.”
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About Save Soil
Save Soil is a global people’s movement launched by Conscious Planet to address the rapid degradation of agricultural soils. Over the last three decades, Save Soil has implemented a holistic strategy for soil revitalization through scalable farmer-driven projects, policy advocacy, and citizen awareness campaigns. The movement is working with a number of governments across the globe to shape soil policies, and is supporting over 250,000 farmers in India to transition to various other regenerative agricultural practices including tree based agriculture (often referred to as agroforestry). Save Soil is backed by the UN Environment Program, UN Food and Agricultural Organisation, UN Convention to Combat Desertification, World Food Program, and IUCN amongst others.
—Amod Datar
Save Soil Campaign
