CarbonShot: Federal Policy Options for Carbon Removal in the United States

This fact sheet from the World Resources Institute outlines the potential for agricultural soil carbon management to remove carbon dioxide in the United States, detailing estimated removal capacities, costs, and a proposed federal policy framework involving financial and technical assistance.

• Agricultural soil carbon management in the United States could potentially remove between 100 and 200 million tonnes of CO2 per year by 2050, provided there is further research and innovation. The estimated cost for achieving these removals is approximately $40 per ton of CO2.
• The document identifies several agricultural soil carbon management practices, including biochar, deep soil inversion, grassland restoration, legumes in pasture, grazing optimization, cover crops, conservation tillage, crop rotations, and compost amendment.
• A proposed federal on-farm research and innovation program covering 10 million acres would require an annual investment of $500 million over 10 years. This program would integrate financial subsidies to cover upfront costs, technical assistance to increase producer knowledge, and research and monitoring to gather data on practice efficacy.
• The U.S. Department of Agriculture has a $25 million annual on-farm conservation innovation trial program to collect data on soil management benefits. The document suggests expanding this by funding soil carbon monitoring and developing cost-effective measurement technologies like remote sensing and spectral tools.

APA

World Resources Institute (n.d.). CarbonShot: Federal Policy Options for Carbon Removal in the United States. https://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/carbonshot-agricultural-soil-carbon-management.pdf

Chicago

World Resources Institute. CarbonShot: Federal Policy Options for Carbon Removal in the United States. n.d. https://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/carbonshot-agricultural-soil-carbon-management.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=CarbonShot: Federal Policy Options for Carbon Removal in the United States |url=https://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/carbonshot-agricultural-soil-carbon-management.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitutendcarbonshot, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{CarbonShot: Federal Policy Options for Carbon Removal in the United States}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/carbonshot-agricultural-soil-carbon-management.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }