The public and private sectors can incentivize sustainable land use and forest conservation. While still only one part of the solution, there are encouraging signs of new efforts to finance sustainable agribusiness.

Recently demand for offsets has risen fast, and could rise faster if federal or state climate legislation created compliance markets for them. Voluntary carbon markets are relatively small, and voluntary carbon offsets cut less than two tenths of a percent of annual global greenhouse gas emissions — but in a larger compliance market, where offsets help meet climate policy requirements, they could cut orders of magnitude more.

The Environmental Protection Agency is offering $14 million to fund projects that help reduce harmful runoff into Great Lakes waterways through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. That includes green infrastructure, farmer-led outreach and education, manure management on farms, and a market-based approach called “water quality trading.”

After seven years of drought in California that drained aquifers and brought many farmers to the brink, legislators in Sacramento crafted a bunch of rules governing water usage. Those rules, many of which kick in next year, cap how much water farmers and cities can use.

Land restoration could attract large private investments in the fight against climate change over the coming decades, if governments and the United Nations put the right incentives and conditions in place.

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue expressed support for carbon markets for farmers during a meeting, Rep. Chellie Pingree said on Monday. An upcoming agriculture appropriations bill will likely include language that urges USDA to research the possibility of such markets, added the Maine Democrat.

It’s a rare opportunity when new money bubbles up for water projects in the Centennial State. But that is exactly what is happening as a result of a bill approved this week with strong bipartisan support in the Legislature. The bill, HB 1327, proposes to raise new money to protect and conserve water in Colorado by legalizing sports betting and imposing a 10% tax on its revenue.

In January 2019, U.S. President Donald Trump signed into law the Tropical Forest Conservation Act (TFCA), a reauthorization of a landmark conservation law that lapsed in 2014. Over its 26 years in effect, TFCA generated more than $339 million for tropical forest conservation. Its reauthorization is considered a success for U.S. and foreign governments’ economies, nature and people.

In January 2019, U.S. President Donald Trump signed into law the Tropical Forest Conservation Act (TFCA), a reauthorization of a landmark conservation law that lapsed in 2014. Over its 26 years in effect, TFCA generated more than $339 million for tropical forest conservation. Its reauthorization is considered a success for U.S. and foreign governments’ economies, nature and people.