A new analysis argues that current greenhouse gas accounting standards systematically undervalue the climate services provided by farmers. The core issue is that human metabolic emissions from respiration and excretion are incorrectly assigned to agriculture's Scope 1 emissions, making the sector appear as a net emitter when it may actually be a net carbon sink. The article uses India as a case study, calculating that the country's agriculture sector could be sequestering 324 million tonnes of CO2 annually once metabolic emissions are properly separated. This would value India's agricultural climate services at roughly $98.4 billion per year, or Rs 52,000-67,000 per hectare. The author calls for the IPCC to create a separate "Human Metabolic Emissions" category to fix this accounting flaw and unlock carbon credit opportunities for farmers under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.
