We Can’t Fix the Climate If We Keep Ignoring Soil

“COP30 disappointed many for failing to provide a binding roadmap to phase out fossil fuels. Yet the conference’s ambivalence towards the state of global soils should be just as alarming,” writes Praveena Sridhar, Chief Policy Officer of the Save Soil movement. 

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With more carbon in our soils than in the atmosphere and all animal and plant life combined, one may expect soil to have been a central feature of the global climate conference, which took place over two weeks in Brazil last month. 

Soil health is the thread that connects climate resilience, carbon sequestration, biodiversity, conflict, migration and starvation. That’s why soil needs to break out of the agricultural realm.

The outcome of COP30 proves that globally, we are still failing to understand exactly what soil does. Fundamentally, the summit’s failure on soil lies in how it is conceptualized. Yet again, soil has been regarded as a sub-component of the agricultural machine instead of the foundation to agriculture and many other components of terrestrial life. It is time we recognize it as the life-protecting organism it really is. 

So what did COP achieve for our soils? 

The Food and Agriculture Organization acknowledged that climate extremes were already undermining yields across the globe. We saw some modest steps forward; the Resilient Agriculture Investment for Net-Zero Land Degradation (RAIZ) was established in order to raise investment in order to restore degraded lands. 

Equally, some funding did emerge. The most positive outcome may be found in the COP30 Action Agenda’s Axis 3. This resulted in $9 billion in investment committed, along with 210 million hectares restored, reaching 12 million farmers. 

$9 billion may sound impressive. Yet, it is still three times less than what the US spends on fertilizers and soil conditioners each year, (approximately $36.8 billion in 2022.) This is equally paltry in comparison to the $3.3 trillion in global clean energy commitment. 

Undoubtedly, small shoots of hope are emerging. However, action is occurring at a walking pace when we should be sprinting. Attending this year’s COP felt like sitting at a firefighter’s conference where the word “water” was never officially spoken, only ever mentioned in hushed whispers in the side rooms.

That is because we have failed to understand that soil does far more than feed us. There is 45% more carbon in our topsoil than previously thought, and it is one of the world’s largest carbon sinks, second only to the oceans. 27% of carbon emissions needed to keep global warming below 2C can be sequestered by soils in good condition. It is the most diverse ecosystem in the world, and is home to more than half of all life on Earth. It is responsible for filtering our groundwater, which more than half of the world’s population relies on for drinking water. 

The world’s second-largest carbon sink lacks a global defense. As the COP failed to deliver, there is still no legally binding treaty to restore soils, leaving them unprotected unlike the atmosphere (Paris Agreement) or our oceans (UNCLOS).

Yet again, we have been left with no pathway for reducing agricultural emissions, improving soil organic matter, or scaling regenerative practices. Similarly, again we have seen no link between soil health metrics and climate adaptation finance, despite soil’s role in water retention, wildfire prevention and flood mitigation. 

The only formal negotiation track addressing agriculture and food systems, the Sharm el-Sheikh Joint Work, failed to reach a consensus in week one, and with no structural solutions being articulated. This working group has been at it for three years with only one more year left in its life. 

Equally, the UNFCCC’s Standing Committee on Finance, responsible for guiding the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) and adaptation finance, held a historic forum in 2025 – the first time in its 15-year history that it dedicated an event to agriculture and food systems. Admittedly still in its infancy, it failed to deliver any considerations of mechanisms, governance, scale, or delivery pathways to access finance for agriculture soils and lands. 

It shouldn’t surprise us then that the financing for land, soils, and regenerative agriculture remains structurally absent from global climate architecture. So what should we hope, push and campaign for? 

Policy should flow from a conceptual reframing of soil. Yes, our global food systems hinge on soil health. However, the health of our soils have implications that stretch far beyond that. It is one of our most promising, under-utilized tools for making this planet more livable in the face of climate change

As laid out in a recent report from Save Soil, the IUCN and the Aurora Think Tank, soil security is both national and global security. It needs to be treated as such. 

Soil restoration must be a central component of any nation’s climate action plan. Much like the Ocean’s Blue NDC Challenge, soil restoration must be a permanent feature of any credible NDC. Many understand that preserving our oceans is about more than protecting fish stocks. Now we must understand that protecting our soils is about more than just protecting yields. Equally, we must create clear, soil-focused eligibility for the Green Climate Fund, and other funding channels. 

Smallholder farmers should ultimately receive far more climate finance than they currently do; despite producing 30% of the world’s food, they still receive less than 1% of climate finance. 

Ultimately, the urgent need of soil restoration must be recognized globally, but implemented locally. Our overarching ambition, which should underpin all our policy decisions, should be to restore the level of soil organic matter in our soils to 3%.

As aquifers dry and wildfires rage, carbon continues to leak out of dead land. The eyes of the world continue to gaze elsewhere. That’s why soil’s “Paris moment” cannot come too soon. 

Featured image: Roman Synkevych/Unsplash.