Urban Farming with Enhanced Rock Weathering As a Prospective Climate Stabilization Wedge

With no single carbon capture and sequestration solution able to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5-2.0 degrees C by 2100, additional climate stabilization measures are needed to complement current mitigation approaches. Urban farming presents an easy-to-adopt pathway toward carbon neutrality, unlocking extensive urban surface areas that can be leveraged to grow food while sequestering CO2. Urban farming involves extensive surface areas, such as roofs, balconies, and vertical spaces, allowing for soil presence and atmospheric carbon sequestration through air-to-soil contact. In this viewpoint we also advocate the incorporation of enhanced rock weathering (ERW) into urban farming, providing a further opportunity for this recognized negative emissions technology that is gaining momentum worldwide to gain greater utilization.

Automated summary

With no single carbon capture and sequestration solution able to limit global temperature rise, additional climate stabilization measures are needed. Urban farming provides a pathway towards carbon neutrality by leveraging extensive urban surface areas for food production and CO2 sequestration. Incorporating enhanced rock weathering (ERW) into urban farming can further promote the application of negative emissions technologies.