Towards Carbon Neutrality: Practices, Patterns and Perspectives

Dear Colleagues,

I would like to invite you to submit your latest research to this Special Issue in Sustainability.

Economic development, environmental protection and social inclusion: these are the three pillars on which sustainability is based. They are also the three aspects, full of challenges but also of opportunities, in which the macro-thematic areas are set out in the Special Issue, entitled “Towards Carbon Neutrality: Practices, Patterns and Perspectives”.

In response to the pressing phenomenon of climate change, the world needs a "Sustainable Development Strategy", shared with the economic system of enterprises to implement a path already started on a global scale, applying the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGS) of the United Nations to the microeconomic scale. The increasing amount of carbon dioxide equivalent in the atmosphere makes it necessary to adapt our agricultural systems to enhance soil's role as a carbon sink. The instrument we have to achieve this goal is defined as 'carbon sequestration', linked to farm management practices, with the aim of mitigating climate change attributable to this sector. These practices refer to the sequestration and permanent storage of carbon in soil and biomass, avoided emissions (preventing the loss of already-stored carbon) and emission reductions (i.e., reducing greenhouse gases below current levels of emissions from agriculture). All agri-food systems can contribute to climate change mitigation, to varying degrees, depending on company types and geographical areas. In addition to achieving appreciable environmental benefits, there is also an important opportunity for operators in this sector to integrate their income through participation in voluntary carbon markets. This provides the opportunity to create a real network of debtors and creditors between those wishing to reduce their emissions and those able to offset them. The above requires a detailed overview of possible practices to capture CO2 equivalents, quantification of the impact generated and emission reductions, finally monitoring over time.

With the adoption of this Climate Neutrality Strategy, the role of agriculture related to process and product innovations under the sustainability paradigm will become crucial. We are moving towards a pattern that reaffirms a shared approach that does not identify development simply with economic growth, but incorporates the pursuit of two other fundamental objectives, environmental protection and social inclusion. Foreseeing the consequences of current choices, while preserving the resources essential to ensure the conditions for development, is, therefore, inherent in the world of agriculture. The choice to analyse sustainability, therefore, appears to be completely in line with its roots, but also deeply embedded in the present and projected into a future that can be truly more sustainable, as a guarantee of life for future generations and the planet in general.

The Special Issue aims to analyse approaches on the sustainability of the agricultural production system, with a view to achieving climate and carbon neutrality, with the aim of combining sustainability and economic vision.

Scientific contributions will be assessed for their originality and coherence with the objective of the Special Issue. The aim is to collect studies on a current topic that will contribute to the sustainability of economic, environmental and social systems in future agriculture and to activate an interdisciplinary comparison at the international level.

Topics covered in this Special Issue include:

• Knowledge and economic challenges in regard to implementing carbon farming;
• Practices implemented to promote carbon sequestration;
• Quantification of Co2-equivalent emissions from agri-food systems and possible reduction scenarios;
• Investment opportunities in existing offset projects in order to achieve carbon neutrality;
• Economic advantages for virtuous companies;
• Compliance markets, such as the European Union (EU) Emission Trading Scheme (ETS);
• Voluntary carbon credits in agriculture and voluntary carbon markets;
• Policy implications at the micro- and macro-economic level;
• Holistic approach to carbon farming by linking different (environmental) policy objectives;
• Clear policy framework for farmers that leaves no one behind;
• Creating the possibility for farmers to actually work on increasing the carbon content of their soils within a feasible and understandable administrative level;
• Find a balance between the ambition of carbon farming and the limits of the Nitrates Directive;
• Future policy ambitions: motivating legislation.

Prof. Dr. Alessandro Scuderi
Prof. Dr. Giuseppe Timpanaro
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• carbon sequestration
• carbon neutrality
• CO₂ equivalents
• innovation
• agriculture
• product