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Agri-Food Super Pollutants Reduction in China: Accelerating a Green and Low-Carbon Transition to Unlock Co-benefits
Accelerating a Green and Low-Carbon Transition to Unlock Co-benefits

English, Chinese

Nov 2025

Policy Brief

Beyond Carbon Climate-Food GAAP

Summary:
This policy brief analyzes reduction opportunities for "super pollutants" (methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, black carbon, and ground-level ozone) from China's agri-food system. It focuses on three key areas: nitrogen fertilizer use and nitrous oxide emissions, food loss and waste and associated methane emissions, and rural energy use and black carbon emissions from cooking and agricultural machinery. It synthesizes scientific literature, official statistics, and policy documents to quantify emissions, identify mitigation potential, and catalog the climate, health, economic, and social co-benefits of action. It finds that super pollutant mitigation offers "triple-win" outcomes—climate, health, and socioeconomic—and identifies three emerging opportunities: supportive national and provincial policies, expanding green finance and carbon market mechanisms, and the growing role of new agricultural business entities in driving technology adoption at scale.
Suggested citation:
ZHU Tongxin, CHEN Meian & MA Yue. (2025). Agri-Food and Super Pollutants Reduction in China: Accelerating a Green and Low-Carbon Transition to Unlock Co-benefits. Institute for Global Decarbonization Progress (iGDP).
Agri-Food Super Pollutants Reduction in China: Accelerating a Green and Low-Carbon Transition to Unlock Co-benefits