The legislation would help farmers and foresters access carbon markets so they could be paid for practices that sequester carbon in soils and trees. Agriculture currently accounts for 10 percent of carbon emissions, and this bill is seen as a way to help that sector become part of the climate solution.

Citizens’ Climate Lobby is among the 60 agricultural and environmental organizations that support the bill.

The Growing Climate Solutions Act creates a certification program at USDA to help solve technical entry barriers to farmer and forest landowner participation in carbon credit markets. These issues – including access to reliable information about markets and access to qualified technical assistance providers and credit protocol verifiers- have limited both landowner participation and the adoption of practices to help reduce the costs of developing carbon credits.