The Technical Working Group on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (T-AGG) began working in November 2009 to assemble the scientific and analytical foundation to support the implementation of high-quality agricultural greenhouse gas mitigation activities. In our first phase we are focused on production agricultural and grazing lands in the United States.

New Web Tool Available
The T-AGG Team has analyzed data on greenhouse gas mitigation potential of agricultural management practices in different regions in the United States (see map). These data are based on the third edition of the T-AGG Synthesis of the Literature. 

Please note that not all practices have available data in all regions. A national data table is included for comparison.

Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Potential of Agricultural Land Management in the United States: A Synthesis of the Literature (Third Edition)

January 2012 - by Alison J. Eagle, Lydia P. Olander, Lucy R. Henry, Karen Haugen-Kozyra, Neville Millar, and G. Philip Robertson

This document, now in its third edition, is a companion report to the T-AGG report Assessing Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Opportunities and Implementation Strategies for Agricultural Land Management in the United States. This edition updates the side-by side comparison of the biophysical greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation potential of 42 agricultural land management activities with newly available and previously un-included data from field experiments, modeling, and expert review.

Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Opportunities for Agricultural Land Management in the United States

November 2011 – by Lydia P. Olander and Alison J. Eagle

This brief summarizes the mitigation potential and the state of scientific knowledge for a wide range of agricultural practices in the United States and highlights key issues for implementing programs to incentivize greenhouse gas mitigation in agriculture.

Assessing Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Opportunities and Implementation Strategies for Agricultural Land Management in the United States

November 2011 -  by Lydia P. Olander, Alison J. Eagle, Justin S. Baker, Karen Haugen-Kozyra, Brian C. Murray, Alexandra Kravchenko, Lucy R. Henry, and Robert B. Jackson

This assessment reviews a wide range of agricultural practices and provides a roadmap and resource for programs and initiatives that are designing protocols, metrics, or incentives to engage farmers and ranchers in large-scale efforts to enhance greenhouse gas mitigation on working agricultural land in the United States.

March 2011 - by Lydia P. Olander and Karen Haugen-Kozyra, with contributions from Stephen Del Grosso, César Izaurralde, Daniella Malin, Keith Paustian, and William Salas

This paper provides an overview of how biogeochemical process models can be used to quantify greenhouse gases (GHG) in agricultural systems for use in developing GHG mitigation programs or protocols. Federal and state agencies, voluntary carbon market registries, and companies are all looking for ways to assess mitigation opportunities in agriculture and to track outcomes of various management options.

T-AGG Survey of Experts: Scientific Certainty Associated with GHG Mitigation Potential of Agricultural Land Management Practices

April 2011 - by Alison J. Eagle and Samantha D. Sifleet

This survey of experts was designed to assess confidence in the mitigation potentials contained in the literature and to discuss critical uncertainties, regional issues, and other caveats. The survey results provide qualitative information that can help decision makers prioritize activities and highlight key areas for near-term research.

An Output-based Intensity Approach for Crediting Greenhouse Gas Mitigation in Agriculture: Explanation and Policy Implications

February 2011 - by Brian Murray and Justin Baker

This journal article explains the features and rationale of the output-based offset (OBO) approach, outlines a candidate accounting methodology, discusses the potential advantages and limitations of such an approach relative to the area-based offset (ABO) approach that is standard practice in some settings, and introduces possible policy implications.

Additional Products:

Reference Library from the Literature Synthesis

This is the complete library of the 412 references cited in the second edition of the Literature Synthesis. The library can either be downloaded as an EndNote file or as an annotated bibliography (pdf).

Working Paper: C-AGG, T-AGG, and M-AGG:  A model of building collaborative actions and common understanding on agricultural GHG mitigation

July 2011 Climate Change Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) working paper by Lydia Olander, Debbie Reed, Daniella Malin, and Karen Haugen-Kozyra

Working together, three US initiatives have successfully engaged diverse perspectives to find common ground, and forge new areas of progress to advance agricultural GHG mitigation opportunities and efforts.

Climate Change Mitigation and Agriculture

December 2011 book edited by Eva 'Lini' Wollenberg, Marja-Liisa Tapio-Bistrom, Maryanne Grieg-Gran and Alison Nihart

This new book features two chapters on reducing agricultural greenhouse gas emissions penned by researchers at the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions—Brian Murray and Lydia Olander. The 456-page book reviews the state of agricultural climate mitigation globally and focuses on the design and implementation of activities to reduce emissions and increase carbon storage.