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1 1 (January 9, 2020)

handle is hein.crs/govbgyu0001 and id is 1 raw text is: FF.ri E.$~ & January 9, 2020 Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks in U.S. Agriculture Agriculture and land-use activities have played a central role in the broader debate on energy and climate policy options in the U.S. and abroad. Although most federal legislative proposals to reduce net U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions would not require reductions in the agriculture sector, some would incentivize voluntary actions. For example, legislation considered by a previous Congress would have established a separate carbon offset program, with tradeable credits, for domestic agriculture and forestry practices that reduce or sequester (store) carbon. Some proposed carbon tax legislation would finance activities in the agriculture sector that support these objectives with a portion of the new tax revenue. Agriculture is both a source and a sink of GHGs (Figure 1). Sources generate GHG emissions that are released into the atmosphere and contribute to global climate change. Sinks remove carbon dioxide (C02) from the atmosphere and sequester carbon through physical or biological processes. Agricultural emissions include many GHGs of interest to policymakers: C02, methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N20). Agricultural sinks remove CO2 through photosynthesis and store carbon in plants and soil. Despite these sinks, U.S. agriculture is a net GHG source. U.S. H .... Since the early 1990s, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has prepared an annual Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks. Federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), contribute data and analyses. The Inventory reports GHG estimates by sector, source, and GHG type. The Inventory expresses GHG estimates in terms of C02- equivalents, aggregated to millions of metric tons (MMTCO2-Eq.). C02-equivalents convert an amount of a GHG, such as N20, to the amount of CO2 that could have a similar impact on global temperature over a specific duration (100 years in the Inventory). This common measurement can help compare the magnitudes of various GHG sources and sinks. The Inventory presents GHG estimates for two types of sector classifications. One classification follows international standards. Every country preparing its national inventory considers the same GHG sources and sinks for the same standard sectors. These include an agriculture sector and a land-use, land-use change andforestry (LULUCF) sector. The Inventory also reports estimates for several EPA-defined economic sectors, including agriculture, transportation, electric power industry, industry, commercial, and residential. Under this format, the agriculture sector includes emissions from fuel- combustion by farm equipment (e.g., tractors) as well as the emission sources already accounted for in the international standard sector for agriculture. This document focuses on the emissions from the agriculture sector, as defined by EPA, and the most recent data available (from 2017). EPA reports that agriculture sector emissions totaled 582.1 MMTCO2-Eq. in 2017 (Table 1), equal to 9.0% of total U.S. GHG emissions (Figure 2). This estimate is based on certain assumptions and includes direct emissions from agricultural activities (see text below for major emissions sources in agriculture). It does not include: * Potentially offsetting agricultural sinks. * Forestry activities, which are accounted for in LULUCF. * Emissions from generating the electricity that farms use. * Emissions from activities in the food system more broadly, such as production of agricultural inputs and post-harvest transportation and processing of foods. Figure I. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks from Agricultural Activities Source: CRS. Note: Enteric fermentation refers to digestive processes in ruminant animals, which result in GHG emissions. K~:> gognko 'pop\qm ggmm g , q 'M a X 11LULKWALiM,

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